The Greatest Shinobi War
by Lord Bear
Summary: Jiraiya is called away near the start of Naruto's training trip and Naruto must take on the burden of training himself. Akatsuki's plans appear to have been hindered for the moment, but what lengths will they go to for their ambitions? NarutoXOC
1. You're On Your Own, Kid

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto and am in no way profiting off this piece.

**A/N: This fic is set from near the beginning of the time skip, and there are very few changes, save that he is slightly more mature, and has a more developed tactical mind. The only members of the sound five who died eventually were Jirobo and Kimimaru, the rest of them figured they had held off their opponents for long enough and decided to retreat. I will hopefully be updating a new chapter every two to three days. My aim for this story is to break the 100,000 word barrier, although with the story line I've planned out, there is enough plot to span 150,000-200,000 (whether or not I can make it there is another story). This chapter will be significantly shorter than my later chapters will be, which i plan to have an average of 5,000 words each. My exams are coming up soon, so I'm expecting a dip in productivity in about a month's time, but following that I'll have two months of free time to update. I'd appreciate it if you took the time to review for either feedback or suggestions, and will make an effort to respond to every review which directly addresses either of these. Thanks and enjoy!**

_**EDIT (18/01/09): Sorry, but I've decided to discontinue 'The Greatest Shinobi War.' To put it bluntly, my writing (and plot) for this story so far isn't at the level I feel I am capable of now, so I've decided to put all my focus into 'Code Geass: The Game of Kings.' I'll put this note at the end of Chapter 16 as well; sorry to all my readers!**_

_**I *may* continue it one day, but at the moment it isn't likely.**_

* * *

"Look kid, this is really important. My spy network has been failing lately and I have to go uncover the mole who's been feeding me misinformation." Jiraiya stood in the doorway of Naruto's hotel room, his bag slung over his shoulder and resting on the familiar red scroll hanging loosely over his back.

"But it's only been eleven weeks ero-sennin; I thought this training trip was supposed to last three years?" Naruto asked, a tear stinging the side of his eye, small enough that Jiraiya wouldn't be able to see it.

He truly thought of his new sensei as a father; well, as close to a father figure as he'd ever known, at least. The old perve had been the first one to take an interest in him and help him reach his potential. He wasn't forced to, but he saw something in Naruto and wanted to help him. Iruka and Kakashi were the only two others ever to take an active interest in his training that didn't involve hampering it. Iruka would show him the correct way to throw shuriken and kunai after class in the academy and even sometimes before it when he could spare the time, and Kakashi, despite being 'encouraged' by the council to limit his training, would still copy out theory and jutsu scrolls for him and had introduced him to shogi.

It soon became a weekly ritual for them. When not on missions, Naruto would often find himself in Kakashi's living room immersed in games lasting up to a few hours in length. He started of shakily at first, losing almost every round in record time, but a few weeks and a short strategy book later, he was regularly besting Kakashi with bizarre and borderline ridiculous strategies, which never looked to be more than random manoeuvres until the game was won. Kakashi was perfectly comfortable admitting he had almost no ability in the game, but Naruto couldn't exactly challenge anybody else without being questioned as to where he learnt it. It seemed he was a natural strategist, bar the fact that he could never explain what he did to anyone else, instead doing 'what made the most sense' at the time.

Jiraiya sighed. "There's been less sign of Akatsuki actions lately; it seems that the six-tails and the seven-tails have passed on."

At this, Naruto looked up with a hopeful expression on his face. "You mean the demons can be killed?" He asked with an almost giddy look on his face.

"It's been said that when one of the biju no longer want to roam the earth they can return to the hell they came from. It's not quite 'dead' as such, but for our purposes it may as well be. The Kyuubi, unfortunately cannot do this while it is sealed, nor do I believe it would want to if it were released. Sorry kid, but fuzzy isn't going anywhere."

"Then why would the six and seven tails want to 'pass on' if they could just live forever like the Kyuubi?"

Naruto moved out of the doorway and sat down on an armchair next to his bed, Jiraiya taking the other. "Your guess is as good as mine. There are no records or even tales of either causing destruction like the one, two and nine tails; perhaps they just got tired of living and decided to end on a high note, rather than dragging it out. Perhaps they got wind of Akatsuki's movements and decided to move on, instead of risking capture. The important thing is, they're both gone and that throws a considerably large monkey wrench in their plans."

Jiraiya chuckled to himself, allowing a smirk to cross his face. "That means they're lying low, they don't think they have enough power to achieve their world domination without two of their most powerful pieces. Looks like you'll be fine for now, kid; they're very hush-hush at the moment, but from what I can gather it's almost certain they've put biju-hunting on the backburner for some other plan of theirs. The only traffic in and out of the organisation I've managed to catch wind of is Kakuzu's regular bounty-gathering trips, but he's been making them for years so it's nothing remarkable. All that tells us is they haven't abandoned ship without the full nine, but with ninja like Itachi and Kakuzu there, they're hardly likely to give up on anything."

Naruto scratched his chin and leaned forward in his chair with his hands resting loosely on his knees. "Who's Kakuzu?"

He really had little information on Akatsuki after all, he knew of Itachi and Kisame of course – being sent to capture him repeatedly and all – and that Orochimaru was originally a member and left them, but besides that had precious little on them.

"This book will tell you all about him and the others." Jiraiya stated, retrieving an orange book from his pocket.

"Wha…What's the big idea, Ero-Sennin? I don't want your pervy book, for the last time!" Naruto practically snarled, glaring at the toad sage.

"This book has everything you need to know about the Akatsuki and almost anything else you might want to know about anyone. Think of it as the ultimate ninja handbook! You should be honoured that I, the legendary toad sage and author, Jiraiya, would willingly make such a resource for you!"

Jiraiya struck a pose, while Naruto flicked through the pages with a blank look on his face, completely ignoring the distraught toad sage.

"It looks like porn to me." Naruto deadpanned, silently re-assessing the sanity of the sannin who couldn't tell erotic literature from valuable shinobi intelligence, while simultaneously comparing it to that of the body-stealing snake sannin and the temperamental, alcoholic slug sannin.

"I'm not a seal master for nothing, brat, channel some chakra into any of the pages and the information will replace my poor, misunderstood novel until you put it down again. It's set only to work for me, you and Tsunade." Jiraiya explained proudly, after having recovered from a spectacular face-fault.

"Uh-huh…" Naruto tried channelling his chakra through the first page, and the text immediately shifted, to be replaced by Jiraiya's notes on various missing nin.

"Why'd you bother with making it work for Tsunade-baachan anyway? You know she'd never get within twenty feet of your book without a bonfire handy."

Jiraiya paused, and his eyes widened. "Guess I never thought of that."

Naruto smacked himself on the forehead and continued leafing through the pages. "So what's in this thing anyway?" he asked, not wanting to hear exactly how necessary Jiraiya's book is to society.

Jiraiya grinned. "Everything I know about Akatsuki and its members – strengths, weaknesses, known techniques, combat plans – everything, a copy of the latest bingo book, a tonne of new jutsu, plenty of sealing techniques and some information about Orochimaru. I didn't want to give you too much information on him, because believe me, I know ­how tempting it is to go after him to get Sasuke back. Still, there's enough on him there to fight him if you encounter him, just no information on his whereabouts. Not that you'd find him anyway, he's as slippery as an eel, it would take you years as you are."

Naruto's eyes had widened considerably with the amount of information and trust his mentor was placing in him by giving him this.

"Wow…thanks ero-sennin! This'll be fantastic!" he said with a grin.

"You didn't think I'd just leave you high and dry without anything to help you train did you? This is a training trip after all. You would really think so little of me? You wound me!" Jiraiya mocked. "There's a few other surprises hidden in that book too, a little extra motivation to reread it, if you will."

Naruto was positively beaming. "This is the best present ever, pervy sage!"

"Well what kind of a sensei would I be if I didn't get you a going away present? And on that note…" Jiraiya pulled a pair of wooden geta from his bag, almost identical to his own, save they were slightly smaller, and presented them to Naruto.

"Happy Birthday for next week kid, now you can be just like your idol…me!" he added with a laugh. Naruto looked on in shock for a few seconds before rolling his eyes and launching himself at the man with a huge smile.

Jiraiya chuckled and ruffled the boy's hair fondly. "Well kid, it's almost time for me to be off." Jiraiya said with a sigh, standing up and moving towards the door. "Take care of yourself, alright?"

"Will do ero-sennin; don't die on me while I'm not around to protect you"

Jiraiya coughed and rolled his eyes. "In your dreams, kid. I'll see you back in Konoha in three years. Ja."

"Three years? I'd better get busy…"

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**A/N: Well thats Chapter One out of the way! If you're concerned about the chapter length...well this one was really just to set up this conversation. Almost all of my other chapters will be around 5,000 words or so. I can say this for sure because...well...I'm writing this after I wrote Chapter 14 lol. I figured I should probably nip the chapter length thing in the bud while I can, and since this chapter didn't have an author note at the end, I figured it probably should get one. Usually this is the point where I say 'next chapter should be up by blah blah blah,' but considering it's already up, and has been up for a month or so...that's kind of a moot point. :P**

**Cheers,**

**Lord Bear  
**


	2. Sanjuka Village

Grumbling to himself about perverted senseis abandoning their apprentices in the middle of nowhere, Naruto poured himself a bowl of cereal from the complimentary breakfast items in the hotel, his hand reaching for a piece of paper and pen. He knew that if he was to survive at all, let alone train himself up to the level of the Akatsuki, he'd need a solid plan.

Firstly, he figured he needed to take stock of what he had to work with. Jiraiya's book, Kakashi's treasure trove of jutsu and theory scrolls, his shinobi equipment, and a lump sum of cash which was apparently his 'mission pay' for the training trip – enough for an extended A-class mission, although he had a hunch that a small amount of it was from Jiraiya.

His aims were the next thing to go down onto the page. His raw power was provided for by the parasitic fox in his stomach, so that wasn't really an issue; although it did completely ruin his chakra control. He figured that he'd need to find some new chakra control exercises to practice, as having perfected both the tree climbing and water walking exercises, the only thing left to gain was larger chakra reserves; something which was something absolutely useless to him with the fox's chakra constantly integrating with his own. Jiraiya probably anticipated that, so he figured he'd be able to find a suitable exercise in the book. Failing that, he could probably develop his own based on Kakashi's theory scrolls without too much trouble.

Physical conditioning was definitely a big must, as was speed. He decided his main goal would be to surpass Lee's level during the chuunin exams without his weights on. It would be tough, but since when had that ever stopped him before? Lee and Gai devoted their lives to their taijutsu training, so he knew he would never be anywhere near as good as them – that would be completely unrealistic – but Lee's level at the chuunin exams would not be beyond his capabilities with three years of training to work with.

Naruto smirked to himself. A few years ago he would never have even dreamed of planning something out, let alone planning an entire solo training regimen for three years. One question had been bothering him all day – 'What exactly _was_ his fighting style?' Did he even have one? As far as he could recall, the only strategy he had ever used was to swarm the enemy with shadow clones (Mizuki), use widely destructive ninjutsu (Gaara), or rely on his endurance thanks to the kyuubi to outlast them in a brawl (Sasuke). It was more than a little bit pathetic that it had taken him this long to realise that, but still, it gave him a chance to remedy it.

He knew he would never be taijutsu oriented with such enormously large chakra reserves, and lacking a sensei to teach him a form. The same problem applied to kenjutsu. Sure, he would certainly make a huge effort to learn a taijutsu style – surely there would be at least one in either Kakashi's or Jiraiya's archives – but without a sensei to personally instruct him, and only a few years to become proficient enough to fight Akatsuki, he would never be a master of it.

Kenjutsu also had a large question mark next to it for similar reasons. He could always have a sword made for him, and teach himself to wield it to a degree, but he would be even less proficient with it than he would be with taijutsu, due to lack of sparring partners and once again, a sensei. Just as he knew he would never be Gai or Lee's equal in taijutsu, he would be foolish to believe he would ever be Tenten's match with a sword.

Jotting down a few types of swords next to 'kenjutsu' on the page, he quickly eliminated a number of them for their difficulty to master, leaving just the wakizashi and katana on the page. The katana would be more difficult to learn, but would be more intimidating and powerful if he could learn to use it. The wakizashi, on the other hand, would be easier to learn, draw faster, and be far less ­obtrusive. The downside being that it would not be appropriate to use as an offensive weapon against a skilled kenjutsu user, such as Kisame. It was more likely that he would only use it to defend in such a fight, until he could regain the advantage using other skills.

Underlining the wakizashi, and placing ticks next to 'kenjutsu' and 'taijutsu' to mark his basic planning for each of them complete, his eyes wandered to the other two big labels on his page – 'ninjutsu' and 'genjutsu.' It seemed kind of pointless deciding which direction he would take on these two points without devising his overall strategy, so that would have to come first. As much as he hated to admit it, he wasn't really 'good' at anything when it came to being a shinobi. His large chakra reserves and regeneration were incredibly valuable assets, sure, but they weren't his doing and would stay regardless of his fighting style, giving him a completely clean slate to work with. The trouble was, how would he know what to focus on if there was nothing he was really good at?

Naruto sighed, dropping his pen and leaning back in his chair. He stared out the window at the quiet town below, absentmindedly fingering a shogi piece from the set he had laid out on the table the night before with Jiraiya. He really missed those games with Kakashi; it had been months since they had played. Sure, Jiraiya was no slouch, but he never had the interest in it that Kakashi and Naruto did, repeatedly getting distracted by women walking down in the street outside the window, or once again getting lost in his books.

Shogi. _That's_ what he was good at. Strategy games. He would never be able to devise strategies for an army, or explain his reasoning in an advisory role, but his incredibly intricate and well thought-out plans were nigh undefeatable once they had been put into motion. Even before becoming good at shogi, his on-the-spot plans always turned out how he wanted them to – take the fight with Zabuza for example. Unfortunately, there wasn't much one could do with that ability, short of information gathering and sabotage. He knew he would never be happy with Jiraiya's life, but sabotage was always an option. In fact sabotage was looking better by the minute. And hand-in-hand with sabotage came assassination. If you're going to sneak in somewhere to ruin a few plans or structures, you might as well go for the main prize and pick off someone important. If you were good enough, that is.

Sabotage and assassination were attractive, certainly, but they never give the feeling of power given by a large-scale ninjutsu attack. It was never in question that Naruto would always be primarily a ninjutsu oriented shinobi, with kage-level chakra reserves, a summoning contract with the toads, and a giant nine-tailed demon fox shaped chakra battery trapped in his stomach. With those kinds of resources it was almost his duty to train his ninjutsu to kage levels.

Struck with a sudden brainwave, he realised that of the nine current Akatsuki members, there were bound to be a variety of assorted specialisations. Greedily, he flipped open Jiraiya's book and channelled his chakra into the pages, watching the words spin into the now-familiar text of the Akatsuki fact-file. Quickly skimming through the files, he was able to cross of a number of names which would have to be ignored. Jiraiya had precious little information on Konan and Pein, shadowy figures who appeared to be running the organisation, so any sort of data on them would be useless to developing his style without knowing more. Information on Hidan was likewise completely useless to him at this point, his fighting style was purely based around his religion and immortality, something Naruto knew he was most certainly not.

Of those left, Kisame and Kakuzu were the most valuable in terms of ninjutsu information, along with the information gathered from Orochimaru's fact-file. Kakuzu's usage of the _Jiongu_ was formidable, but not something Naruto would ever be insane enough to use. He liked how Kakuzu was able to cover all of his bases using a mask geared towards each elemental affinity, and after a short browse through documents relating to elemental affinities gathered from Kakashi, resolved to train at least two elements, his affinity – which tested to be wind, as Kakashi had left a chakra card with the elemental affinities theory – as well as at least one other, and be proficient in the rest.

Wind attacks were most effective in wide scale combat, such as the _Futon: Daitoppa_, so that would certainly cover him for his offensive ninjutsu. Fire techniques were overused and commonplace in Konoha, so he wouldn't focus on them. Water techniques were effective against fire techniques, which happened to be the weakness of his wind affinity, so that was a definite positive in favour of water. They were also mostly defensive – a good balance with his offensive wind nature – and he had a huge source of information on Hoshigaki Kisame, possibly the best water user in the ninja world, thanks to his repeated abduction attempts on his person – making the water element his best choice for second element.

Earth-based attacks had proved almost impossible to learn for him in the past – assumedly due to his wind nature – so he would clearly have difficulty training that element, although he decided he would learn Jiraiya's _Doton: Yomi Numa_, in case he had to deal with a summon while Gammabunta was preoccupied, as well as a sturdy Doton: _Doryūheki _for defence when he didn't have access to a water source. Lightening was far too flashy for use while infiltrating, and would cause too much screaming when electrocuting an enemy, but a few techniques from it wouldn't go astray. With his large chakra reserves, it would be likely that most of his water techniques would involve practically drowning the enemy many times over the course of a fight, so _Raiton: Jibashi_ would make things move much more efficiently.

With his ninjutsu plans looking positive, he turned his attention to the other Akatsuki members and their specialities. Deidara, their resident demolitions expert would certainly be a benchmark to compare himself to, though his clay mouths would make studying any of his techniques thoroughly useless; Naruto being unable to replicate the technique himself. The only thing that really could be gained from his file was that there would be a huge potential in creating a way to remotely detonate weaponry when attempting to take out a structure. Likewise, little could be gained from Sasori's file that didn't involve his _Kugutsu_ techniques, other than the man was obsessed with powerful poisons and a list of his favourites, which Naruto quickly copied down for later to either synthesise for his wakizashi and kunai, or to research the antidotes in lieu of a potential run-in with Sasori.

Zetsu's file was most intriguing. The group's hunter-Nin had a habit of eating other people, it appeared, although that was not important. What _was_ important, was Zetsu's use of the_ Hiru Bansho_ technique, allowing him to absorb himself into various solid surfaces to avoid attack and ­appear elsewhere. As an assassin, that would be an invaluable ability to have, and even in battle, its use as an escape tactic – should he find himself in over his head – would also be extremely beneficial.

Genjutsu would be extremely difficult for him to master, and he knew it. Due to the fox, his chakra control was far too weak to learn genjutsu yet, though he knew it would be important in his role as an assassin. He would never be on Kurenai's level – that much was obvious – but he needed to be able to weave them well enough to remain undetected, and to keep his target appearing unharmed until he could escape. By then it would be too late to do anything about it. Of course with genjutsu, he had to look no further than Uchiha Itachi. Naruto didn't have a sharingan eye, so after copying down a short list of useful genjutsu off his file, his only remaining interest in Itachi's techniques were to fight against him – and that could wait for the moment. Hopefully Sasuke would pick him off before he had to deal with him. Still, as convenient as that would be, he knew it would never happen.

With a basic outline of his goals and a rough idea of how to reach them, Naruto set down his pen and pulled his chair up to the window. The village of Sanjuka was a quiet village in the far north of the Land of Valley. The Land of Valley spanned the gap separating Iwagakure and Takigakure from Otogakure and Kumogakure. A mountain range, running East to West directly through Valley Country, sectioned off a strip several miles wide between the mountains and the sea, outside of the immediate influence of Konohagakure in the South. It was for this reason that the third great shinobi war took such a huge toll on Sanjuka village. The allied Kumo and Iwa armies had secured the corridor immediately for trade purposes, and Kumo had forcibly ruled these new territories collectively, so they could be divided between the two allies after the war. The Kumo ninja were brutal to the inhabitants. Rape, torture and humiliation were commonplace, promoting revolts amongst the people which were violently put to rest.

Konoha and the remnants of the Kusagakure forces after Iwagakure's invasion of Kusa devised a plan to capture the corridor forcefully. They planned to pass through the Land of Rice Fields where the mountain paths were less treacherous and drive a wedge through the supply route. From there they would move west and clear enemy forces throughout Valley Country, before aiding their overrun allies in Takigakure, who were in desperate need of medical ninja. The battles were bloody and took their tolls on both sides. A significant portion of the Kumo troops were lost, as were more than a few Konoha ninja. The brunt of the damage was taken by the small villages dotted throughout the corridor which were being used as outposts and sentry points by the Kumo forces, who had their orders to focus on the Konoha ninja and disregard damages to the villages. For every life lost on either side, the life of one civilian man, woman or child was lost in the conflict.

For that reason, Sanjuka Village – along with almost every other village in the corridor – had developed a deep-seeded distrust and borderline hatred for shinobi. Jiraiya and Naruto had to sneak in under henges to get hotel rooms the previous night or they knew they would not have been served. Naruto immediately took a liking to the village, it was quiet, peaceful and one of the last places Akatsuki or Orochimaru would look for him. Being cut off from Konoha and sandwiched between Kumo, Iwa and Oto was risky, to be sure, but anywhere else and he would be an easily locatable target. He obviously couldn't stay in Fire Country for three years, he'd be found easily in a sweep. Wind Country was similar, Akatsuki almost certainly knowing of his friendships with the sand siblings. Iwa and Kumo's territory were definitely out, being enemies of Konoha during the third war. Oto was likewise not an option, with Orochimaru interested in studying him and Sasuke wanting to kill him for the mangekyo sharingan.

Naruto stood up and walked over to the kitchenette, reaching into the cupboard for an instant ramen cup. The jacket of his black and orange jumpsuit caught on the corner of the cupboard door, and ripped open from his elbow to his shoulder. "Kuso" he growled, examining the damage. There was no way he would be able to sew it up, having never practiced the skill. Searching through his bag, he grew quickly irritated. He carried precious little, and didn't have another jacket. Taking a quick inventory of his equipment, he noted that he had only his survival gear, a few items of clothing, a number of blank scrolls, a handful of kunai, a few cups of ramen, the money Jiraiya left him and the information Kakashi and Jiraiya gave him. Not nearly enough to last him three years as a ninja.

"Where am I going to find a decent shinobi store around here?" he asked himself, inwardly groaning at the prospect. His best option appeared to be finding a small shinobi village in Waterfall Country, or even Takigakure itself, if he was allowed access.

Discarding the ruined jacket in favour of the black shirt he had on underneath, he gathered up his shinobi equipment and hid it in the cupboard, in case the hotel management decided they needed to enter the room for some reason. A quick henge to disguise his clothing later he was walking down the streets of the village towards the commercial area in the centre. The buildings in this area were very modest in size, with a good amount of space between them. They reminded him a lot of the Uchiha estate, and were clearly part of the residential area of the village, in contrast to the sandstone buildings where the hotel was built, which were similar to his own apartment complex back in Konoha.

"I can't live three years in a hotel, I'll be broke faster than Baa-chan if I try to. I guess I'd better find a decent apartment somewhere around here by the end of the day, with any luck it will be better than mine." He mumbled, looking for somewhere to eat. He'd spent the better part of his morning planning and had taken a lunch break.

"Ah who am I kidding? I'd get better value in Kumo than back home" he added irritably.

The commercial district of Sanjuka Village was small, only containing a dozen or so businesses arranged in an L-shape around a fairly large park with a number of benches. There was a butcher, a green grocer, a bakery, three clothes shops and a number of small cafés and restaurants scattered amongst them.

"What? No grocery store?" Naruto cried, inwardly howling. "But that means…that means…no ramen!" Dragging his feet along, he tried to salvage the situation by making the best possible choice of the remaining options. So caught up in his misery, he was, that he almost completely missed it. The holy grail of culinary conquests.

_Takahashi Ramen_.

A ramen stand tucked right into an alcove on the far right of the set of businesses. He was saved! Pushing aside the flaps, he stepped into the stand and took the centre seat.

"Hi. Welcome to Takahashi Ramen, what can I get you today?" The waitress asked, smiling.

She looked to be around nineteen, and appeared to be the owner. Her hair was a deep red and came down to her shoulders, curling up slightly at the bottom. She was dressed in a white coat similar to Ayame's back at Ichiraku's. She had dark brown eyes and a pointed jaw with a fair complexion. Naruto immediately ordered a large miso and she smiled, turning around to prepare it.

"You're not from around here, are you?" she asked politely, chopping another ingredient for the meal.

"No. I'm not" he replied steadily. Had he given himself away as a ninja? Could she see through his henge? It was unlikely, but still possible.

"What makes you say that?" She looked over her shoulder at him and smiled warmly.

"I just haven't seen you before. Sanjuka Village is small, and we tend to know each other well."

"Oh." He replied, unsure of what else he could say.

"I'm guessing you're staying at the hotel then? Just passing through?" She finished chopping the ingredients and added them to the noodles and the broth.

"Yeah, I'm in the hotel at the moment, but I'm on a three year…holiday I guess you could call it, and planning to move here"

The woman placed the basket on one of the burners and turned back to the table. She sat down on a seat which was standing behind the counter to the far right of the stand and leant her left elbow on the bench, her chin resting in the palm of her hand.

"Really? Well that's something we don't get every day. Most of the people who move here are retired or looking to raise a family, haven't had many young people come in by themselves at all."

Naruto grinned and rubbed the back of his neck. "I guess I was always meant to be different, eh?"

The waitress chuckled. "You're interesting, I'll give you that. What's your name? If you're moving here I'd better get to know you. I'm Hanae, Takahashi Hanae."

"Naruto. Just Naruto. My parents died when I was born, no-one knew their last name."

It wasn't technically a lie, just a half-truth. As far as he knew, no one had any idea who his parents were. He figured it would be easier to maintain that cover rather than using his own name and risking identification or making up an elaborate family history and slipping up later.

Hanae gasped. "That's horrible" she said quietly to herself, correctly assuming he wouldn't want sympathy and standing up to check on the ramen.

"Alright Naruto-kun" she added, smiling sweetly at him. "Have you found somewhere to live? I gather you won't be living at the hotel the whole time?"

"No actually, I only made plans to move here this morning."

Hanae stood once again and poured the ramen into a bowl pushing it towards him and sitting back down on her chair. "Well you should talk to Rokuro-kun, he's got an apartment he's going to be renting out for a while. Would you like to meet with him? He's a good friend of mine, I'm sure he'll be happy to meet you."

Naruto looked up from where he was already half-finished demolishing his noodles and nodded eagerly; swallowing the last bits of noodle he had in his mouth.

"That would be great, where can I find him?" He asked, before returning to his ramen with gusto.

"He spends most of his free time in the park. You'll know him when you see him. Trust me, you'll know what I mean." Hanae giggled and Naruto, just looked confused, not entirely how he would be able to identify someone purely based on 'you'll know him when you see him,' so he just smiled and thanked her, paying for his ramen and standing up.

"Thanks for stopping by, Naruto. I'll see you around." She waved and turned to place his money in the till.

Exiting the stand, he made his way over to the park. It was quite large, about three quarters of the size of the average training ground in Konoha. There was a small, man-made stream running through the centre, with small footbridges across at regular intervals along it. In the centre of the park stood a large gazebo, with a number of tables and chairs sitting under it, almost all of them filled by shogi players of all ages. Dotted throughout the rest of the park were similar tables and stools, made of stone to last in the weather, and with boards permanently carved into the tops. The pieces were kept unlocked in a drawer under the table, so they evidently had no problems with vandalism or theft. At one of the far tables, he caught a glimpse of very familiar hair.

"Sakura-Chan?"

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**A/N: Phew, 4,000 words. Felt good to get rid of this one. Next chapter should hopefully be up by tomorrow, or even later today if I put a tonne of time into it. Please review with your ideas and suggestions, I'm open to all of them. **

**Cheers,**

**Lord Bear**

_Jiongu_ - Earth Grudge Fear

_Futon: Daitoppa_ - Wind Release: Great Breakthrough

_Doton: Yomi Numa_ (Earth Release: Swamp of the Underworld)

Doton: _Doryūheki _(Earth Release: Earth wall)

_Raiton: Jibashi _(Lightning Release: Electromagnetic Murder)

_Kugutsu_ (Puppetry)

_Hiru Bansho_ (Leech all Creation)


	3. Takigakure

**EDIT: IcecreamMakingGuy's review points out that there are a large number of discrepancies between my Takigakure and the canon Takigakure in OAV 2. This is because I wanted to involve a village which was not one of the major powers in this context, and so I completely scrapped anything in the anime. It couldn't have been Amegakure because of Akatsuki, and i have plans for Kusagakure later. For this reason there is no Shibuki, the village looks completely different, their foreign policy is different, and connotations attatched to the village are also completely different. None of the events in OAV 2 took place.**

**I will repost this at the beginning of chapters 4 and 5 for those who had already read this chapter and the last.**

* * *

"Excuse me?"

Naruto shook his head and stared at the man who had hair exactly like his long-time crush with a mixture of confusion, shock and absolute horror.

"What did you call me?" The man asked, raising an eyebrow. He'd garnered mixed expressions to his choice of hairstyle in the past, but they usually ranged from people trying to gauge their eyes out to high-pitched squeals from some of the more impressionable younger girls. He'd also had his fair share of people who pretended not to notice anything unusual. Like that was fooling anybody. He'd never had anyone call him _Sakura-Chan_ before. That was new.

"Uh…" Naruto stammered, fidgeting with a pair of disposable chopsticks he'd taken from Takahashi's before it clicked. "You must be Rokuro, then?"

The man chuckled and beckoned for him to take the seat opposite him. "Indeed I am. Although I am curious, you thought I was _Sakura-Chan_ not two minutes ago."

Rokuro reached under the table and pulled out the drawer, placing it on the edge of the table. He began to take out his pieces and set them up on his side of the board.

"Hanae-Chan said I'd know you when I saw you." At this Rokuro's eyes glazed over, and he let out a nervous laugh.

Naruto followed his lead and began to set up his own pieces, taking a moment to study the man in front of him. The most obvious feature was his hair, the exact shade of pink as Sakura's, but cut short in a similar fashion to Kotetsu's, spilling to either side of his light blue eyes. He appeared to be at least eighteen, although he was likely on the older side of nineteen or the earlier side of twenty. His face was thin, and a slight layer of black stubble was growing from the bottom of his chin. _'He must have died his hair pink. Who would do that?'_

Rokuro heaved a sigh. "She did, did she? Bless her. Why would she tell you to find me though?" He asked, seemingly genuinely curious.

Naruto made the first move. "I'm new here and planning to stay here for a few years."

At this his eyebrows shot up and he grinned. "Ah! You need a place to stay, do you? I'm guessing she told you about my apartment?"

Naruto nodded absently, his index finger and thumb stroking his jaw, not looking up from the game in front of him.

"Just you then, is it?"

Again, Naruto nodded, slowly pushing his lance forward to capture one of his opponent's pawns.

"Wonderful! I've got just the place for you" he announced, looking up at the young shinobi with a beaming smile.

Rokuro placed his index finger on his only remaining gold general and slid it backwards a square to avoid capture.

"When can it be ready by?" Naruto asked, trying to get a fix on the best time for him to make his excessively out-of-the-way shinobi shopping trip.

"I can have it ready for you in a week at the earliest." He replied, gritting his teeth as one of Naruto's knights captured a pawn critical to his strategy.

After hammering out a few details for the rent, the conversation slowed somewhat, both players very involved in the game, with moves lasting upwards of ten minutes apiece. Rokuro gave him an overview of the history of Sanjuka while they played. Most of it he knew already, but didn't interrupt him out of courtesy. According to Rokuro, Sanjuka was seen as the centre for shogi in the elemental nations, and many of the world's best players either grew up there or moved there in retirement. Every year there would be a large festival in September and tournaments would be held, enticing hundreds of players to flock to Sanjuka in hopes of being crowned the "Ryu O" (Dragon King), bestowed upon the winner of the major tournament.

Rokuro himself came to live in the village with his father, an avid shogi player, when he was ten, after his mother's death from an uncontrollable illness. Naruto visibly stiffened when he mentioned this, reminded of the pain he felt at the Sandaime Hokage's funeral – his first precious person. Rokuro saw this and abandoned his move in favour of placing a hand on Naruto's shoulder, assuming that he was worried about accidentally offending him. He explained that it had been a long time since her death and he was sure that she was happy wherever she was. Naruto hoped so too.

Two and a half hours after the game commenced, it ended. Despite Naruto's best efforts, Rokuro had captured his king and won the game. Naruto had no illusions of himself being a genius, so he wasn't horribly disappointed. Rokuro complimented him on his first game in Sanjuka and told Naruto he was ranked as a 2-dan after living in the village for just over nine years. He assured him that it was a terrific performance for someone green, and that it took many years of focus to become one of the top 9-dans in the village, who for this very reason, were almost all retired and in at least their sixties. Thanking him for the game and apartment, Naruto packed up his pieces and replaced the drawer. Rokuro scribbled an address down on a piece of paper and handed it to Naruto, being hastily summoned by a dark-skinned man a few tables down for either advice or a game, leaving Naruto to casually make his way away from the park with his hands in his pockets.

Back at the hotel, he sat cross-legged on his bed, a map of the region spread out on front of him. As he had assumed, there were no shinobi-friendly villages in that part of Valley Country which he could purchase gear from, with his best options being two mountain villages which were neutral towards them. Unfortunately, a neutral village was hardly likely to carry an extensive range of equipment; in this area, the meaning of 'shinobi-neutral' was more likely to infer that they would spit on your shoes instead of your face. West was out of the option, he could hardly go on a shopping spree in Oto territory any more than he could wander up to Orochimaru and ask "Hey, do you mind if I have Kusanagi?" True to his initial estimates, that left Waterfall Country. He supposed his best option would be to enter Takigakure itself, but he'd have to think of a good way to get in without becoming the Taki ANBU's latest pincushion. There were a few other villages within a few miles of Takigakure, but they wouldn't provide nearly the quality he would be able to get from the main village.

* * *

By the time Naruto had checked out of the hotel and passed the border of the village, it was already late in the afternoon and he knew he only had three or so hours of light left. _'Better late than never, I guess.'_ The trip from Sanjuka to Takigakure would take three full days for a regular jounin, who didn't train in speed as Gai and Lee did. Naruto figured that with the incredible stamina levels the nine tails gave him, he would be able to make it in two full days and the remainder of the current day.

* * *

Two and a half days of running, camping, fishing, roasting and sleeping later, Naruto finally came up on what was marked on Jiraiya's map as the entrance to Takigakure. And promptly face-faulted. _'A giant tree? How am I supposed to get to it if there's a giant tree on it?'_ Naruto grimaced. Jiraiya's notes said something about a cave system or a river system which would lead to the main village, but that could take him years to find. There was also the rather large danger of being killed on sight by patrolling ANBU mistaking him for enemy ninja feeling out their defences. So he did the only logical thing he could think of.

"HEY! TAKIGAKURE ANBU!"

If Jiraiya had been there, he would have smacked himself on the forehead. If Sakura had been there, she would have smacked Naruto on the forehead. If Tsunade had been there she would have smacked both Naruto and Jiraiya on the forehead. Unfortunately for Naruto, the only people there were six Taki ANBU, who were all dangerously close to smacking him on the forehead.

With shuriken.

"Halt. Identify yourself."

Reflecting on his strategy, Naruto decided that that was most certainly _not_ the best way to have gone about it. In fact it was the probably the _worst_ possible plan short of launching a destructive ninjutsu at the tree, or creating an army of shadow clones and henging them into an invading force. _'How do I keep getting myself into these kinds of situations?'_

"Uzumaki Naruto, Konoha gennin."

Taki weren't exactly allied, but they had a peace treaty, so Konoha ninja had a small amount of wiggle room when it came to travelling on their territory.

"State your purpose." The ANBU to his right directed.

Naruto had developed a light sweat during the confrontation, but didn't risk them mistaking him wiping his brow as a threat.

"I wish to enter Takigakure for a couple of hours to purchase shinobi equipment and lunch."

Two hours was a conservative estimate, he only really needed one, but it was better to overestimate than run behind schedule and get kicked out before he was finished or be killed for overstaying the time he was allowed to be there. He probably could have made his response a little less formal and left off the 'lunch' part, but he didn't want them to be suspicious of him if he did anything he didn't say he was going to do.

Two of the ANBU in front of him draw wakizashi and held them to his neck, while one on the left with long, light-blue hair, who appeared to be the leader, moved towards him.

"Papers?"

It was an unspoken rule in shinobi nations that you should always carry your identification papers by themselves in an easily accessible pocket somewhere on your body, so that an allied patrol could check them without you moving, in case you were an enemy and they needed to subdue you.

"Back left pocket, under the pouch."

Naruto, like most other leaf ninja, carried their papers in a watertight plastic bag on in their back pockets. It was thin enough not to notice when sitting down, and with shinobi pouches covering both of his back pockets they weren't much use anyway.

The ANBU removed the pouch and checked it for tags before fishing his identification papers out of his back pocket. She studied them in silence for a few moments, while the two in front of him forced his neck up a little higher with their swords to show that they were serious.

"He checks out." Was the verdict reached by the one holding the papers, passing them to each of the other three that weren't guarding him, allowing them to quickly gloss over them in case she'd missed something. Each of them nodded silently in turn, and the two holding the swords lowered the tips of their swords to allow him room for movement, still staying on guard in preparation for any sort of attack.

"We will require you to submit any weaponry on your person before we can draw you up a day pass." The female ANBU stated, taking on a slightly friendlier and less passive tone. "You may collect them at the gates when you leave."

Naruto frowned. "What gates? All I see is a massive tree."

One of the ANBU behind him face-faulted.

"The village is _under_ the tree, baka! And the gates are at the front of the village!" The female ANBU shouted at him, shaking a fist in his face.

"Whoa! Take it easy" he sniggered.

And found himself at sword-point again.

Six swords this time.

One aimed far lower than entirely necessary.

"Alright, alright, I get the picture."

After a few seconds the ANBU released him again and he detached his remaining ninja pouch and his leg holster, handing them to the female ANBU for inspection.

"Let's see…twelve kunai – poorly weighted and…no shuriken."

She cocked her head to one side.

"Well you certainly got one thing right, you definitely need new gear. You wouldn't last ten minutes in a fight with this junk." She added, chuckling so as not to come across offensive.

Naruto was inwardly seething. He knew the stores in Konoha would overcharge him, but that was a whole month's worth of the allowance the Sandaime set up for him.

He forced a grin and rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah…looks like I do."

Two of the ANBU began to escort him towards the village, while the other four, including the leader, silently peeled off to continue their patrol. It wouldn't do if they sent a whole squad to bring him to the gates, in the case that it was a ploy to create a hole in their patrols.

"Looks like I won't need the contingency plan after all" Naruto murmured quietly to himself a few seconds after they took off, and was immediately met with two swords trained onto his neck.

"What _'contingency plan'_?" the one on his right spat.

Naruto groaned and his shoulders slumped. Of all the ways he could have said that, he used the words 'contingency plan', and set himself up to be potentially interrogated.

"There's a map in my right jacket pocket, the three villages circled in red were my other options if I wasn't allowed into Takigakure."

Both ANBU gave him penetrating looks for a few seconds, trying to decide if he was genuine. As before, one kept their sword firmly trained on his neck, while his partner reached into his pocket and pulled out the map. He studied it for a few moments after unfolding it, before channelling a small amount of chakra into it to see if it changed to a mission map or something similar. At this point Naruto was _really_ hoping Jiraiya hadn't created it as a dummy to disguise a map of Akatsuki's bases, or worse, Konoha's outposts.

Satisfied with what he saw, the ANBU folded it up and shoved it back into Naruto's pocket forcibly, warning him that he was treading water. A few minutes of fast paced running with the ANBU flanking him, they led him to a large cave entrance. He was starting to feel slightly apprehensive. This didn't look like the sort of cave that led to an underground village. This looked like the sort of cave you take you take someone to kill them. Deciding he didn't really have much choice other than running and being killed anyway, he allowed himself to be guided by the ANBU further into the tunnels in the darkness. He would have thought he was alone, save for the barely audible footsteps of the ANBU behind him and to the left. He couldn't hear his partner at all. He'd either left sometime in the last few minutes, or he was too silent to hear.

This continued for a few minutes, before he saw the light of a flame torch flickering around a corner, casting the shadow of a ninja on the ground in front of them. The Taki shinobi must have some way to see in the darkness of the caves to have led him for so long with ease, or they had traversed them so often that it was second nature to them. The shinobi came into view as they stepped around the corner, along with a huge set of gates. He wore a navy blue flak jacket with a white trench coat wrapped around it. The hilts of two katanas were visible through the jacket, both hanging on his left side. He looked to be slightly older than Naruto, and based on the flak jacket, was either a chuunin or a jounin. If Taki was anything like Konoha, he was most likely a chuunin who had been saddled with gate duty. He wore standard navy blue shinobi pants with wraps down to his ankles, and wore the Takigakure symbol on his forehead protector, which was covering a mop of unruly black hair. Naruto let out a chuckle. He looked like Sasuke.

"Who's this idiot?" he grunted, leering at Naruto.

"I'm sick of your attitude Etsuko. One more wrong word out of you and I'll have you doing D-ranks for a month," The ANBU on his right growled.

He must have been there the whole time. That gave Naruto another thing to work on. If he could make his movements silent, that would be an invaluable skill for him to have.

"Yeah, yeah. You ANBU all say that. You know that will never happen, my bloodline makes me too valuable to the village to send me back to gennin. I'll only have to do this stupid gate duty a week at most before they promote me to jounin."

Yep. Exactly like Sasuke.

"Look _chuunin_, we need a day pass. Make it out for 'Uzumaki Naruto' and tick 'Non-shinobi business.' I'm leaving his gear here with you at the gate. You'd better not fuck it up or you could start an incident for sabotaging a Konoha ninja's property"

"Konoha ninja? What's he doing here? I don't think I've ever seen one of them in Taki before…" he trailed off, racking his memory.

"That doesn't matter to you, _chuunin_. Just hurry up and make the card before I just let him in and say you did it."

It was an empty threat, an ANBU wouldn't leave a foreign nin to their own devices inside their village without identification, but it got the point across that he needed to watch his lip. Evidently, he was a serial offender.

* * *

Twenty minutes and one I.D card later, Naruto was casually strolling down one of the main roads in Takigakure towards what looked to be the commercial district. He was still somewhat confused as to why it was named Takigakure, 'The Village Hidden in the Waterfall,' as opposed to Mokugakure, 'The Village Hidden in the Tree,' but figured it was probably due to the huge waterfalls that cascaded over the roots of the tree and covered the cave systems. He supposed that if you were at the base of the tree, you'd think the village was hidden by a waterfall, so he begrudgingly accepted that. He still thought it should have been named the 'Hidden Tree Village,' though.

The inside of the village was not what you would expect from a village hidden under a tree. Not that he'd have had any idea what one _should_ be like, but he at least expected a lot of darkness. On the contrary, it was as if he was outside. The entire village was in a humongous cavern, and the ceiling could not be seen. There must have been some sort of permanent genjutsu on the tree above them to make it appear like the sky. There were even clouds and a sun, which he assumed would set at night. It would be frustrating living in a world with eternal daytime.

The commercial district wasn't very large, it seemed. There were only three shinobi stores around, but Takigakure wasn't known for its variety. It wasn't particularly well known for its craftsmanship either, mostly because of its reclusive nature, although weapons recovered from battle with Taki ninja showed high quality designs. Most people were concerned about trying to gain entry in case they were seen to be an enemy and taken down by their ANBU, who were on par with Kumo's as the elite of all the shinobi nations, so Kusa was a more likely option for ninja allied with Konoha, being much more accessible. Naruto, however, didn't know any better. The first store didn't seem to stock much besides kunai, shuriken, ninja wire and a few other essentials, but their prices were cheap, and assumedly targeted their academy students. The second shop had a larger range of stock, but the owner was an aggressive veteran shinobi who criticised him for his selections, so he quickly vetoed that option, leaving only the third store.

"Hello, welcome to Mitzusaka Shinobi Gear, what can I do for you?"

The store was simple both in name and design. There were five or six short aisles containing the basic shinobi weaponry and related items stacked neatly side by side. The back half of the shop was entirely occupied by a vast selection of shinobi gear on racks, with two cubicles in the back right corner to change in. along the walls and above the aisles hung swords, scythes and other obscure weapons of all different kinds. They were obviously the more exotic and expensive items the shop stocked.

The attendant was a pretty girl who was slightly younger than him. Her face had lit up immediately with the prospect of showing a new customer her merchandise and explaining them to him. _'She's the kind of person Tenten could come to like,'_ he thought with a grin. An older man who was assumedly her father was sitting on a stool a few metres behind the counter sharpening a long katana.

"Hi. Well, I'm after a completely new everything to be honest." He admitted, letting out a nervous laugh. "Three years' worth of the basics, a whole new wardrobe and a sword should be all I need. I'm on a three-year solo training trip."

The girl wore a feral grin at the word 'wardrobe,' and he couldn't help but think that perhaps she would be more suited as a friend of Ino's, rather than Tenten's.

Twenty minutes later he was loaded up with a large box of graphite-coloured kunai with white leather wraps around the handles, a smaller box of shuriken, a similar sized packet of makibishi, and a small pack of senbon. He had never used senbon in the past, as they were mainly for medical nin, but it couldn't hurt to have some just in case. It would be better than making another trip back to Taki, at any rate. He also picked up a few pre-made sealing scrolls to carry his items in. He had plans to learn sealing, having a lot of time he would be forced to stay in the village, unable to train, but he hadn't learnt any yet. It would be rather difficult to carry that many boxes of weaponry into Sanjuka unnoticed.

The young girl, whose name was Ikue, told him that he could go and see her father to select a sword, and began moving the boxes to the front and sealing them in the scrolls he purchased.

Naruto found the older man on the far right of the door, standing on a stool and replacing the katana he had been sharpening on a wall bracket.

"Ikue-san told me you would sell me a sword?"

The man looked over his shoulder at him and stood down off the stool. "Any idea what you want, then?" he asked with a gruff, but kind voice.

"I was looking for a wakizashi." Naruto replied, and then added "I'm wind natured, so you have any that will channel wind chakra?"

He figured that if he was going to learn to manipulate his element, he might as well use it in his weapons. There was no chance of him ever becoming a kenjutsu master, so the added power his wind chakra would give his strikes would hopefully make up for his lack of training and the size of his wakizashi in comparison to a katana.

"Wind nature, eh? Haven't seen one of those for years. Taki is mostly full of earth users."

Naruto was confused. "Earth users? Why not water? This is the 'Hidden Waterfall Village' after all," he replied, adding a comment under his breath about the 'Village Hidden in the Giant Tree'.

The man chuckled. "You really think our founders could have dug a huge place like this with water manipulation? Even wind might make more sense. There's a wind manipulation exercise which involves cutting a waterfall, if I remember correctly. There are many water users here, but the majority is earth."

Naruto shrugged. "I suppose that makes sense. The _Jiongu_ is an earth technique," he muttered quietly to himself.

The man reached for a kunai. "How do you know about the _Jiongu_?" He asked, glaring at Naruto dangerously.

"Kakuzu." He stated unwaveringly and the man glared even harder at him.

"You know that bastard?" He was practically shouting at him now, and Ikue had run up to see what was going on.

Naruto sighed and leaned against a shelf, massaging his temples.

"He indends to kill me. I must kill him first."

His eyes widened, and he gripped his kunai harder. "Kakuzu…cannot be stopped. I was seventeen when he left the village. My grandfather was my idol. He was one of the elders on the council. Kakuzu took their hearts when he left. Every single one of their hearts. If you can kill him…If you can show me his head, I will give you the _Kaze no Gunshin_."

Ikue let out a gasp.

"That wakizashi was made for me by the same man who made the weapons of the seven swordsmen of the mist five years earlier. It allows the wielder to bring out the full power of his wind nature. It was his greatest masterpiece, and a stronger sword hasn't been made since. I was originally planning to give it to Ikue-Chan, but I had her tested and she is water natured. She would be much better off with a regular weapon, or one aligned to her water manipulations if I can get her one."

Naruto was shocked. This man would willingly give him his own weapon? And one that powerful? _'It's not like I don't have to kill him anyway.'_ The man slowed his breathing and tried to calm himself down.

"So that's why…if you can do that for me, I will gladly give you this sword." Naruto nodded in response.

The man smiled and shook his hand. "Please, call me Shiro…"

"Naruto." He answered, realising the man was asking his name.

"Ah. Now what kind of sword were you interested in, again?"

"A wakizashi."

Shiro smirked. "How very convenient, eh? I think I have just the thing out the back."

He left the room and returned a few moments later carrying a sixteen inch blade with a gleaming edge. The hilt took up almost a third of the blade's length, and was wrapped in black cloth, silver diamond-shaped metallic patterning set along its length in typical wakizashi style.

"Give this a few swings."

Naruto complied, testing its weighting to the limited extent he could, not being a kenjutsu user.

"You've never used a sword before, have you?" he asked. Naruto grinned and rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.

"No, I guess I haven't." Shiro sighed and brought his eyebrows together for a moment before smiling and focusing on Naruto again.

"I'll tell you what, kid. You show me Kakuzu's head in two years, and ill apprentice you in the third year of your trip."

A huge grin covered the young ninja's face as he whooped and pumped a fist in the air. Shiro asked if he would like him to place the wakizashi amongst his purchases. Naruto nodded. He also selected a set of two graphite-black tanto, before wandering over to where Ikue was now waiting amongst the clothing racks.

"_There_ you are!" she shouted, jumping up and practically bouncing on her feet in anticipation. Naruto groaned. This was going to be hell.

* * *

Two hours and over six hundred different items of clothing later, Naruto exited the store, waving goodbye to Shiro and Ikue. He winked at Shiro and promised him he would be seeing him again soon.

In his hand he held his new ninja backpack, which was reinforced to be waterproof so as not to damage all the scrolls inside which contained his equipment. On his feet he wore the wooden geta he had received from Jiraiya, and his legs were clothed in a pair of loose three quarter black canvas pants, which were being held up by a belt which was affixed with a small silver buckle. The bottoms of his pants were secured with black wrappings to prevent them being caught on anything. A new black kunai holster was attached to the outer side of his left thigh with another black wrap, while a thick white wrap was tied around the bottom of his right leg, leaving a few inches of material hanging of it at the back.

He had swapped the material on his headband for a black piece, and kept it placed on his forehead. His hair had grown recently, so he let it fall over the top of the headband on the side, making sure his Konoha symbol was still visible. The fabric was cut so that it left enough on the ends to ensure it stayed on, but would be concealed by his hair at the back. He had a black, skin-tight t-shirt on his torso, coming right up to his neckline. Over that he wore an almost metallic blue Takigakure flak jacket, in a similar design to its Konoha counterpart, with scroll holders on his chest. It came up to his collarbone and had a high collar wrapping around the back of his neck, leaving the black shirt visible underneath. In his hand he held the necklace of the Shodaime Hokage. Shortening the length of the string with one of his tanto, he placed it around his neck so that it would be visible contrasting against the black of his t-shirt.

Over the flak jacket, he wore a large white robe, similar to that of the Hokage without the kanji. His arms were completely covered by two large sleeves when he wasn't moving. The coat was held together with a piece of string two inches long which clipped onto either side of the robe over the top of his flak jacket, slightly below his breast. On each of his forearms he wore an identical black metal bracer covered in intricate patterns inlayed with gold. On his hands he wore a pair of black gloves. They were fingerless so they wouldn't slow his handseals, and the backs of them were covered with a metal plate in the same design as his bracers. Each of the knuckles on the gloves had a small metal spiral on them, which Ikue had told him would channel wind chakra to rip through many materials. He figured it must work on a similar principle to Asuma's trench knives. The collar of the cloak was loose around his neck, giving him enough room to mount his wakizashi over his right shoulder for a quick draw. His two tanto were sheathed and hooked onto his belt on the left and right of his hip.

It was highly unusual for a shinobi to be allowed to wear the flak jacket of another country, and had not happened for years. Unlike the headband, which symbolises the village a ninja serves, the flak jacket can in some rare cases be given to those of a different village. Shiro told him that he would be allowed to wear it because he would be filing to make Naruto his apprentice. While it had never happened in Taki before, and only a few times in other hidden villages, it was technically legal for him to take on a foreign shinobi as an apprentice, as long as it wasn't from an enemy nation or during war times. The application would be marked as pending, and if Naruto didn't return with Kakuzu's head within two years, he would void the contract – although he didn't mention anything about that on the form. Because of this, Naruto would be allowed to wear the Taki flak jacket regardless of whether or not the application was eventually processed. Shiro had given him a piece of paper detailing permission to wear it for him to add to his identification papers so that he wouldn't be killed by Taki ninja who mistakenly thought he was mocking them.

With a quick stop only for ramen, he passed back through the gates to collect his gear. The guard, Etsuko, gave him a cold glare as he passed through, which he happily returned without incident, as he had held his robe closed covering the jacket to prevent word getting out about his potential apprenticeship just yet. After being led back out through the caves, he set off once more for Sanjuka.

* * *

_Kaze no Gunshin_ – Wind God of Heaven and Earth

**A/N:Third chapter finally up. That took a bit longer than i would have liked, but still, three nights isnt too bad for 10,000 words, eh? Please leave a review if you liked or even if you didnt. Even a sentence or a couple of words would be great!**

**Cheers,**

**Lord Bear**

**EDIT: Due to .HoLloW's request, anonymous reviews have now been enabled!**


	4. Azami

**A/N: I've had a few technical issues with the last couple of chapters, having random paragraphs of code inserted haphazardly throughout the text. This issue has now been resolved. I also recieved a review with a few tips on correcting my dialogue and have done some large editing to the previous three chapters. Thank you to everyone who reviewed! Now, on to chapter 4! Enjoy!**

**EDIT: IcecreamMakingGuy's review made me realise that the following sentence, - despite adding to the first chapter in the 'changes to cannon' part in my word document between writing chapters 3 and 4 - i had forgotten to edit into the actual fic. **

_"The only members of the sound five who died eventually were Jirobo and Kimimaru, the rest of them figured they had held off their opponents for long enough and decided to retreat."_

**His review also pointed out that there were a large number of discrepancies between my Takigakure and the canon Takigakure in OAV 2. This is because I wanted to involve a village which was not one of the major powers in this context, and so completely scrapped anything in the anime. It couldn't have been Amegakure because of Akatsuki, and i have plans for Kusagakure later wink. For this reason there is no Shibuki, the village looks completely different, their foreign policy is different, and connotations attatched to the village are also completely different. None of the events in OAV 2 took place.**

**I will repost this at the beginning of chapters 3 and 5 for those who had already read this chapter and the last.**

* * *

"Orochimaru-sama requires your presence"

Sasuke sat up from his floor mat – Luxuries in Oto were few and far between. Orochimaru's idea of a plaything was something dead. His room was the definition of Spartan; the cold brick walls closed off an area far larger than the academy classroom, but the only things in it – save for a small bookcase on one wall containing a solitary scroll – were his backpack as it was the day he left Konoha, and the tattered sleeping mat he provided for himself from his survival gear. The room was almost four times as tall as he was, and sound echoed off the walls. The doors were almost the same height as the room, and just as wide. They were made of solid steel, set in two half arches which opened outwards, a heavy locking mechanism on the other side. Across from the door at the top of the wall was a small square window, with two steel bars running horizontally side-by-side across the centre.

"Hai. Take me to him." Sasuke ordered. He refused to believe he was not the one in control here. Orochimaru would answer to _him_. _He_ was the Uchiha. _He_ had the sharingan. _He_ had to kill his brother. Orochimaru was just a means to an end.

'_Tch. Kidomaru is the weakest of the old sound four. He couldn't hold me.'_ Sasuke launched himself at the guard with a right kick to the chest, feinting into a snap kick to the face with his left foot. Kidomaru caught his leg and pushed him backwards smirking, as Sasuke landed with a back flip and activated his sharingan. He growled and charged again.

"My, my, my. This was an unexpected twist." Kidomaru chuckled.

"_**Kumo Sokai no Jutsu!"**_

He made a half hand seal and arched his wrist back, releasing the strands of his Spiral Spider Web, forcing it to capture Sasuke's hands and separate them. He watched him attempt to break through it for a few moments, glaring holes at him, before he decided enough was enough. Walking around to Sasuke's back, he grasped a handful of his hair and pull his head backwards so he was looking up at him upside down.

"Game over, Sasuke_-kun_"

'_He got lucky.'_ He supposed that even if he went all out, he would still fall short of defeating Kidomaru, but with time – and Orochimaru's training – he would kill him when he left. Oh yes he would definitely leave. He knew all about Orochimaru's plans to take his body for the sharingan. He wouldn't let him of course. He was an _Uchiha_. The _Elite_. He would receive his training and kill the snake sannin himself. He would take the Kusanagi and strike Itachi down with it.

He would destroy Oto when he left. He never hated Konoha. He didn't desert them only to turn around and destroy them; he left because he needed power. He needed it fast, and Orochimaru could give him this power. One of Orochimaru's main goals was to use Oto to destroy Konoha. He would repay his debt to them by destroying Oto from the inside as he left.

Kidomaru released most of the web and used it to tie Sasuke's wrists together, making sure to keep his fingers separate and immobile to ensure he would not be able to form hand seals.

"Sorry, Sasuke-_kun_, I guess I'm just at a higher level than you," he added with a wink, taking a great deal of joy in showing up Orochimaru's _precious Uchiha_.

"Walk." He commanded, kicking Sasuke in the calf and pointing down the hall. He complied, albeit grudgingly, deliberately dragging his feet along the ground to waste time. Kidomaru had no problems dispensing a few more well-placed kicks.

The entrance to Orochimaru's personal 'throne room' was guarded by Tayuya and Sakon. Ukon was presumably there too, but it was difficult to tell at times. Tayuya let rip with a few choice curses as he passed, while Sakon just stared impassively. The door opened up with a long, thin corridor, barely wide enough to walk two abreast down. On either side of the door was a bracket holding a lit torch, which illuminated the hallway for a few paces, before leaving it in shadows once again. At the opposite end of the hallway, two more torches in an identical configuration revealed the far door.

"Ah! How good of you to join us!" Orochimaru chirped, a sickeningly sweet smile adorning his features. "Tell me, Kidomaru…why is my student tied up?" Sasuke smirked triumphantly. He was really going to get it now.

"Your _student_, wanted to make a statement, in a physical manner." He replied with thinly veiled contempt in his voice. Orochimaru turned to Sasuke.

"Is this true, mmm?" Sasuke's smirk grew even wider.

"He did not know his place."

Orochimaru's smile immediately disappeared, and Sasuke began to lose confidence.

"You would do well to remember whose territory you are living in. While you are under my rule, you will do as I command. You will _not_ engage in frivolous pursuits like this in the future. Are. We. Clear?"

Sasuke nodded. "Crystal" he ground out, his teeth clenched tightly together.

His smile returned. "Now then. It seems the outcome is clear, yet I still feel obligated to ask; how did my student perform?"

Kidomaru looked over at Sasuke, who was glaring daggers at him, and snorted. "Abysmally. He didn't land a punch and was beaten by my first _Kumo Sokai_. He had his sharingan active after his first assault." Again, Orochimaru's smile disappeared, replaced immediately by a strong frown.

"Is this true?" He asked, staring dangerously at Sasuke, rapping his fingers on the arm of the wooden throne he sat in.

"Hai. It is." He replied. Orochimaru would have known had he lied. He probably monitored the fight to begin with.

"That sort of performance is not what I expect from one of my students," the snake sannin snapped. "How do you expect to kill Itachi if you cannot even kill Kidomaru? As punishment, your training will start in two weeks instead of today. You will be confined to your quarters for the meantime. I will provide a number of theory scrolls for you to study each day, and you will not be permitted to leave your quarters save for bathroom use and meals three times per day each. You are both dismissed."

Kidomaru released his web and Sasuke clenched his fists until his nails pierced the palm of his hand. He glowered at Orochimaru for a moment, before turning on his heel and stalking out of the room, Kidomaru strolling casually behind him.

"Shall I go after him, Orochimaru-sama?" Kabuto asked, stepping out of the shadows to Orochimaru's left.

"No, Kabuto. He is just a childish brat. The cursed seal will keep his desire to stay strong, and I would not let him escape regardless. Things turned out quite well for me in the end, don't you think? We can't have him getting too strong. He will turn on me one day. That arrogance of his will lead him to challenge me; I am not foolish enough to believe he is unaware of my plans to possess him. He will make his move just as I am preparing myself to make the switch, and I will put him in his place before taking those wonderful eyes of his. Kukuku…" His eyes took on a silver sheen as his lips quirked at the corners.

"Keep him weak, then?" his loyal servant asked.

"Hai, make sure my stronger ninja know not to go all out on him. We want him to think he is getting stronger when he inevitably challenges them." Orochimaru was silent for a moment, index finger and thumb stroking his jaw.

"Have you made any progress on the experiment I requested you work on?" he asked slowly.

"Hai, it's entering its testing stages now, although finding test subjects is significantly challenging, due to the…rare circumstances required"

Kabuto and Orochimaru shared identical smirks at the thought of what collecting their 'test subjects' would require, as Kabuto stepped fully out of the shadows and walked up to Orochimaru. He retrieved a small glass jar filled with a blue serum from his pocket and set it on the arm of the throne, in front of the sannin's hand.

"This is a small sample if you wish to conduct your own tests." He added, smirking before turning around and walking towards the door – his left hand in his pocket and his right held above his right shoulder in a farewelling gesture. "Ja."

Kabuto was so useful to him. A true genius. He would keep him around. Oh yes he would _definitely_ keep him around.

* * *

Naruto returned to the village a week after he had left, and headed for the address Rokuro had given him, after dropping by 'shogi square' as it was called for some ramen and to pick up a few other 'essentials'. He had changed just outside the boundaries of the village and his shinobi gear was secured in a scroll which was lying inside the small, low-quality travel bag he had just purchased to keep up appearances of a civilian moving villages. He wore a white t-shirt and dark blue pants, with a brown leather jacket hanging unzipped on his torso. He had left the Shodaime's necklace on; highly doubting anyone would recognise it. It would take someone very well versed in Konoha history to identify it, and even then he could always just say it was a replica he had made. Although Kakuzu would recognise it. But then again, Kakuzu would recognise and try to abduct him regardless, so it didn't really make much of a difference.

* * *

True to his word, Rokuro was waiting outside the door to the apartment for him. He had never specified when they would be meeting, so he must have had very good timing, or he had seen him pass through shogi square earlier and headed over.

"Ah! Naruto-kun! Good to see you made it!" he bellowed, waving to Naruto as he walked down the corridor towards him.

"The apartment is ready for you to go right in. Here are your keys." At this he handed over a set of two keys on a key ring, and scratched a short note on a piece of paper, handing that over too.

"The big key is for the front door and the other one is for the balcony. My address is on that page; call me if you need anything."

He looked Naruto in the eye and winked. "Sorry kid, I've got to run, I've got a hot date!" He turned on his heel and half ran, half skipped out of the building.

Shrugging, Naruto inserted the key into the lock and opened the door, fumbling for the light switch. The entrance opened out into a long living room, with two double seated couches arranged in an L-shape in the back left hand corner. In between the couches was a small, square table, and in front of them was a larger coffee table in an oval shape. On the far left side of the room between the wall which held the doorway Naruto was standing in and the couches, was a small, round, glass table with a pair of chairs pulled up to it. In the back right corner of the room was the door to the balcony, which contained a similar table and set of chairs, which were clearly more resistant to the weather, while across from the table was a door which led into the bedroom.

From the doorway, the bed jutted out from the opposite wall, a few feet to the left. Opposite the bed, on the same wall as the doorway to the immediate left, was a small, wooden dresser. There was an armchair in the back left corner, as well as a bed side table a foot away from the chair. A large closet was on the opposite side of the bed to the table. There was an entrance to a small bathroom located a few steps to the right of the bedroom doorway.

Naruto strolled over to the couch and sat down, dropping his bag on the ground in front of him. He pulled out the book Jiraiya gave him, along with the scroll Kakashi had filled up for him and the rough plan he had written out in the hotel. Shiro's offer had completely taken him by surprise, and he had no intention of losing this valuable opportunity. That would mean defeating Kakuzu, though. And that would be extremely challenging. He supposed it would be a good idea for him to take out a few Akatsuki members if he was able to, while they were busy adjusting their plans and he was off their radar. Having three or four less shinobi to deal with when they made their play for his demon would be far more advantageous than potentially fighting a group of them.

Killing Kakuzu would mean killing Hidan, though, as Akatsuki members worked in pairs – and he was entirely sure conventional methods would not work on him. He would have to come up with some other way of permanently incapacitating him. The exception to the rule of working in pairs was Zetsu. Technically his partner was 'Tobi,' although with his liberal use of the _Hiru Bansho_, as a spying technique. it would be difficult for this 'Tobi' character to follow him. He needed to eliminate Zetsu first, or the Akatsuki would be able to get a lock on his position the first time he engaged in a fight. Defeating an S-class ninja renowned for their infiltration abilities was a daunting task, but he would succeed. He had to.

The details of his taijutsu regimen needed to be hammered out first. He had never been taught a taijutsu style properly, only what Kakashi and Iruka had managed to drum into him. In hindsight he felt a big guilty. Iruka put a lot of effort into trying to get him to learn a complete taijutsu style when he was much younger and the academy style wasn't working for him, but he continually refused, demanding that he teach him powerful ninjutsu. He'd definitely treat Iruka to a few bowls of ramen when he got back.

Opening up Jiraiya's book and channelling chakra into it automatically, he flipped through until he came to the taijutsu section. Jiraiya had personally recommended the _Kurohyo_ (Black Panther) style. The _Kurohyo_ was based on fast and powerful strikes from close range, one after another without leaving your opponent a chance to defend himself. This sort of attack completely ignored defence, relying on the skill of the user to ensure that the opponent could not counter attack. For this reason, defensive taijutsu was learned separately from the bulk of the style, and the user would continue defending until they saw an opening, quickly changing to the offensive side of the style.

A note at the end of the page instructed him to turn forward a few pages, to where Jiraiya had compiled a large set of written sealing lessons. He had obviously thought this through and put a lot of work into making it for him, knowing it was likely he would be called away – endearing the toad sage Naruto had come to see as a father-figure to him even more.

The format of each lesson was to provide a detailed theory report, with a storage seal drawn at the bottom of the lesson's last page. Naruto would have to apply whatever knowledge he had gotten from the lesson to release the contents of the storage seal. As the difficulty of the lessons progressed, so did the intricacy of the storage seal. There were seventy-three lessons overall. The note from Jiraiya preceding the first lesson told him that completing all of the lessons would qualify him as a seal master easily, as he had put every piece of knowledge he knew on the subject into the book. It also told him that, should he make it that far, he could complete the examination at the Fire Temple at any time, and that other than himself, there were only two true seal masters in the elemental nations – and both were retired and could not be located.

He completed the first lesson right then in ten minutes, as it covered the basics of weapon and item sealing, which he had already been given a crash course in by Ikue back in Takigakure. The only reason he spent the full ten minutes on it was that the theory behind it would be useful in later lessons. Releasing the seal, he struggled to stand up when a full set of arm and leg weights fell out, along with a note. After laying the weights down on the floor as softly as possible, so as not to damage the floor under the white carpet which covered the whole apartment, he picked up the note and read it.

_Hey Gaki,_

_These weights should tide you over until you can try a gravity seal on yourself. They're in lesson fourty-eight. Remember not to try it on yourself until you are absolutely sure you know how to do it properly, you could be squashed thin as a pancake otherwise! It's probably best to try it out on a rock or something first._

_Good luck!_

_- Jiraiya_

_Toad Sannin_

_Holy Sage of Myouboku Mountain_

_World Famous Author_

_Supreme Ladies Man _

Groaning at his sensei's vanity, he lifted the weights and placed them into a corner. He would wait until he could track down a private location where he could train away from the village before he started learning his taijutsu forms, although he could easily commence weight training by jogging around the village if he wore baggy pants. A few quick notes on his page gave him a schedule of a daily ten laps around the village, as well as two hours of assorted workouts he would be able to do in his own home, such as push ups, sit ups, crunches and the like.

There were very few changes he could make to his ninjutsu plan based of what he learned in Takigakure besides it being important that he fully master his wind manipulation training in preparation for wielding the _Kaze no __Gunshin_. He would have to wait until he could locate his temporary training ground before he could work on any, although he knew that some of the exercises involved in elemental manipulation would likely be possible inside on a smaller scale.

Flipping the book back open, he quickly turned to the section on elemental manipulations, his index finger trailing down the page until it reached wind and water manipulations. Wind manipulation training involved two key tasks. Firstly, splitting a leaf with wind chakra, and secondly, splitting a waterfall with wind chakra. The first task he would be able to practice inside easily, but the second would have to wait for the moment.

Water manipulation was slightly different, involving three stages. The first was to be able to 'float' the water at will, which meant that you had to be able to move the water anywhere you wanted with chakra. The second was to fill a glass of water without a source. The third and final stage involved separating the water molecules and dispersing them in the air, eventually completely emptying the glass. Fortunately for him, all three of these would be possible within the confines of his apartment. Water masters like the Nidaime would be able to accomplish this on a far larger scale.

His final decision was to not learn many new ninjutsu until he had come close to mastering both his wind and water manipulations. There was little chance of running into an enemy ninja in Sanjuka, and less chance of a run-in with Akatsuki than there would have been a few months ago, so he had plenty of time to train his basic skills before he learnt anything more powerful.

Naruto knew his basics weren't exactly a strong point. Fortunately, he would be able to train them inside as well. He set a number of goals for two months' time. The first was to be able to reliably perform the _Kawarimi_ seal-less and without smoke or sound, and the same for his _Kage Bunshin_ and _Henge_. He wouldn't be able to gain access to his target if he kept 'popping' every time he performed one of these techniques. Likely, this would only take two weeks or so, but the difficult part was in the second task. To master the _Rasengan_ to the point where he would be able to do it in one hand without clones, and to be able to form it almost instantly without focusing all his attention onto it. He also wanted to be able to make one in each hand simultaneously, but that would have to be a work-in-progress. It wasn't necessary for the time being and he had time to complete it. Hopefully it would only take an extra one or two months.

It was still light outside, so he strapped his weights on and made his way outside to begin his training with a definite spring in his step.

* * *

"Your move, kid"

Naruto sighed. The elderly man was only a few moves from defeating him. The game was lost from the very beginning, when he had lost four key pieces with a ranging rook and had to play catch-up from there.

It was becoming a daily ritual for him over the last few months. He would wake up at sunrise and run his laps of the village. The ramen bar didn't open until lunch, so unfortunately for him, he was forced to eat whatever he could get his hands on at home, which was usually some bacon and eggs he had picked up for himself at the butchers the previous night. After breakfast he would do his physical workout, and spend the remaining hour or so until lunch working on his sealing exercises – from which he had gained a number of small prizes, ranging from Jutsu scrolls he had hidden instead of printing in the book, to copies of the other Icha Icha books in the series, which Naruto promptly resealed.

From there he would head down to Takahashi's for lunch. He had built up quite a good relationship with Hanae over his many frequent bowls of ramen. She would ask him about his friends back home as she cooked, and he would tell her as much as he could without revealing he was a ninja. Ino worked in the flower shop, and Sakura was studying medicine (Jiraiya told him Tsunade had taken her on as an apprentice). Lee was a fitness freak, Kiba and Shino both worked with animals, and Iruka was a teacher. He had to refer to Jiraiya as 'Ero-Sennin' and Kakashi as 'Ero-Sensei,' as they were both well known, even in non-shinobi areas.

Shogi, as popular as it was in the village, became a standard fixture in his schedule, filling in two to three hours after lunch. The elder shogi players were the most active during this time, although there were a few younger players scattered around the park.

Towards the end of the third week, a teenage girl began to compete. She started over at the beginners tables as Naruto did, but quickly moved up to the rank below his, a few benches over. Her platinum hair was straight and shoulder length, parted in the centre of her forehead. Large red eyes would study the board in front of her in concentration, as she massaged her temple with her left index finger, before silently pushing a piece into position with two fingers of her right hand. Something about her posture seemed suspicious to him though.

'_Could she be an enemy ninja?'_ he asked himself, eyes widening. If she was, had she been sent for him, or was there another target in the village? She looked up slowly, and blue eyes met red. Naruto quickly realised he was staring and quickly averted his gaze, hoping that she hadn't noticed. If she _was_ an enemy, it wouldn't do for her to realise he was onto her so easily.

He sighed and moved his piece. His opponent was obviously expecting that manoeuvre and quickly played another of his own, clearly having planned his strategy a few moves in advance. He was swiftly beaten, never having much of a chance to mount a counter-attack, and thanked his opponent for the game, who commented with a smile that he would have made a better showing if his mind was on the game.

* * *

His new training ground was fourty five minutes at a run outside of the village; a small valley situated in the mountain range. Any access that might have led to Konoha was cut off by two of the smaller mountains, creating a 'dead-end' for him to train in without worrying about ninja or civilians passing through. There was a small pond in the corner which he could practice his water techniques using. The only thing missing was a waterfall for the wind manipulation training, but he had found one that was half an hour in the opposite direction from Sanjuka, spilling out into a river which opened out into the sea a few miles down.

Placing his bag down on the ground, he settled himself into a cross-legged position on a flat rock and began leafing through Jiraiya's 'Ultimate Ninja Handbook.' He quickly turned to the ninjutsu section and skimmed the pages, making notes in a separate book detailing which ones he would endeavour to learn and in what order. This was only the sixth time he had been to the training ground other than when he scouted it out, and he intended to make good use of it. Almost everything else he had been able to accomplish in his apartment, after all.

Despite what he had originally thought the first time he read through this section, Jiraiya had in fact included his prized _Doton:_ _Yomi Numa_ technique, hidden in one of the sealing exercises. It seemed he was going to make him work for the stronger jutsu. Up until then, his usage of the training ground had been confined to learning various wind techniques, having been recently practicing his manipulation in that field. Already he had added the _Futon: Daitoppa_ (Wind Release: Great Breakthrough), _Futon: Kazegaeshi _(Wind Release: Wind Return), and the _Futon: Atsugai_ (Wind Release Pressure Damage) to his arsenal, in that order.

The _Atsugai_ was A-ranked, and clearly the prize of his collection. Jiraiya had hidden it in one of the latest sealing lessons, and Naruto had uncovered it just days earlier. _Daitoppa_ was only C-ranked, but he felt it would be faster to start off slowly, rather than going straight for the most powerful technique, and he would gain a free jutsu under his belt, to boot.

'_I guess I have changed, after all,'_ he thought to himself, allowing a slight chuckle.

One thing he had noticed with the _Daitoppa_, was that if he overloaded it with chakra, he could create a similar effect to that of the Atsugai. It used more chakra overall, but less handseals, and would be useful if he didn't have much time to spare in a pinch. _Kazegaeshi_ would be a necessity to counter-attack if he found himself up against a fellow wind user. And he eventually would. Kakuzu's _Jiongu_ allowed him to possess up to five hearts at any one time, and he would bet anything that he would have acquired one of each element. How convenient.

* * *

Four hours and one shower later, Naruto was sore and had drained himself of almost all his chakra – although the fox was quickly refilling it; Yondaime's seal purifying it as fast as it could into the non-toxic variety. He had made progress with his Doton jutsu, mastering the _Doton: Doryūheki_ (Earth Release: Earth Style Wall), _Doton: Dochū Eigyo_ (Underground Projection Fish), _Doton: Shinjū Zanshu_ (Inner Decapitation), and _Doton: Iwagakure _(Hidden Amongst Rocks) techniques fairly quickly. The night before he had read Kakashi's notes on earth manipulation, and had spent some time getting a feel for the composition using a few rocks from outside. The _Doton: __Shinjū Zanshu_ technique was often seen as the baby brother of the _Hiru Bansho_ (Leech all Creation), so he made the effort to learn it, eying the _Hiru Bansho_ as the main prize.

Pushing past the flaps enclosing Takahashi's, he paused and his eyes widened. Facing away from him at the centre seat was a head of familiar platinum hair. Cautiously, he made his way to the seat on her right and sat down, calling out an order for a pork ramen to Hanae, who was visible through the doorway leading to the back of the stall. The girl paused and looked up, eying him for a moment before returning to her meal.

"Ah! There you are Naruto-kun! I thought you'd forgotten dinner again!"

Hanae had stepped out into the main area of the stall behind the counter and pouted at him, her left hand on her hip and her right hand holding a ladle. She looked back and forth between her two customers, and raised an eyebrow, curious as to why they hadn't spoken.

"Say, Naruto-kun," she began with a bright smile and indicated the girl to his left. "Have you met Azami-san, here, yet?"

"We haven't been introduced." The girl, Azami, cut in before Naruto could reply, smiling brightly. "Pleased to meet you."

"Same to you. Are you new here like me? I didn't see you at all the first few weeks of my stay."

At this her shoulders slumped, and her eyes took on a silver sheen. "Hai, I guess you could say that" she replied quietly. "Although I _have_ been here for almost a full year, I needed to leave for a few weeks a while ago. My mother died and I had to attend the funeral. You'll have to forgive me, it hurts too much to use my family name for the moment, so I can't give it to you," she added, dabbing the corner of her eyes with her fingers to wipe away the tears which had accumulated there.

Naruto placed his left hand on her shoulder and spoke softly. "I'm sorry to hear that. If it's any consolation, no one ever knew who my parents were, so I can't give you mine either."

Azami's breathing faltered as he spoke and she turned to face him completely, burying her head in his chest and sobbing uncontrollably. He had no idea how to deal with a crying woman. Almost all of the women in his life were loud and aggressive. Sakura, Ino, Tsunade…he'd never been in this situation before. Still unsure of himself, he slowly placed his right hand between her shoulder blades and patted it awkwardly. His bowl lay forgotten on the counter as he attempted to console the distraught girl. Hanae noticed and quietly poured the meal into a takeout container for him to eat later.

Eventually, Azami's breathing evened out, and her tears stopped flowing. She slowly sat up and a light blush spread over her pale face. Her scarlet eyes remained slightly puffy as she tried to wipe away the tear stains with a napkin.

"S…Sorry…I shouldn't have done that," she stammered, half embarrassed for crying on his chest, and half disappointed in herself for putting her problems onto others.

The corner of Naruto's lips curved up into a kind smile. "That's alright."

She let out a breath, thankful that he wasn't going to be angry with her, and quietly asked Hanae to place the rest of her meal in a box to take home. This action jogged Naruto's memory, and his eyes scanned the room for his bowl of ramen, finally coming to rest on a small plastic container displaying his name. He smiled warmly at Hanae, silently thanking her for thinking to package it for him.

"Would you like me to walk you home?"

Her eyes widened at his offer. "Hai…I'd like that."

Naruto collected both boxes of ramen, and gathered her jacket up from the back of her stool, placing it around her shoulders as she stood. He thanked Hanae and paid for his meal, before following Azami out of the stand.

They walked through the moonlit village in silence, coming to a stop outside one of the small houses in the residential district he had passed on his second day in Sanjuka.

"This is your house, is it?"

"Hai," she replied in a quiet voice. Her eyes met Naruto's and she stepped closer to him. "Thank you Naruto-kun…for everything tonight."

She stood on her toes and planted a small kiss on his cheek.

"Good night, Naruto-kun."

Without waiting for a response, she turned around and slowly walked towards her house.

Naruto stood perfectly still for a moment. His cast his eyes upwards towards the full moon, as a smile tugged at the corner of his lips.

"Azami-Chan, huh?"

* * *

**A/N: The next chapter should be out in a few days. What did you think? What would you like to see happen from here on out?**

**Can anyone guess what Orochimaru's been creating?**

**Cheers,**

**Lord Bear**

_Doton: Yomi Numa_ – Swamp of the Underworld


	5. Icha Icha Vacations

**A/N: IcecreamMakingGuy's review made me realise that the following sentence, - despite adding to the first chapter in the 'changes to cannon' part in my word document between writing chapters 3 and 4 - i had forgotten to edit into the actual fic. **

_"The only members of the sound five who died eventually were Jirobo and Kimimaru, the rest of them figured they had held off their opponents for long enough and decided to retreat."_

**His review also pointed out that there were a large number of discrepancies between my Takigakure and the canon Takigakure in OAV 2. This is because I wanted to involve a village which was not one of the major powers in this context, and so completely scrapped anything in the anime. It couldn't have been Amegakure because of Akatsuki, and i have plans for Kusagakure later wink. For this reason there is no Shibuki, the village looks completely different, their foreign policy is different, and connotations attatched to the village are also completely different. None of the events in OAV 2 took place.**

**Chapter 5 is now up. Please review with your feedback! Enjoy!**

* * *

Naruto sighed. He'd been beaten again.

"What's wrong Naruto-kun? You've seemed a little spaced out all day."

Naruto was currently sitting on one side of a tatami mat on the floor of Azami's house, while she lay on her stomach on the other; a shogi board arranged between them. Her elbow dug into the floor, chin resting in the palm as she looked at Naruto with concern in her eyes.

"It's…it's nothing."

"You sure about that? It doesn't sound like nothing." She queried, once again resetting her pieces for a new game, expecting him to do the same. When he instead leaned back against the wall and stared out the open door, she grew worried.

"Is there something you're not telling me?"

"It's nothing, alright?" he replied with a hint of irritation in his voice.

Azami shrugged, and began to pack up the board. He was getting touchier and touchier the last few days, and she did not have a clue why. She knew better than to let it impact her though, there was obviously something eating him up inside. He'd tell her when he was ready.

"Let's just go and grab some ramen, alright? That's bound to cheer you up" she mocked playfully, poking him in the shoulder as they stood up.

"Alright, alright, you got me. Do you mind if we drop by my place first? I need a shower." He asked, gesturing to his light purple shirt and grey pants. He had slept on her couch the previous night, being caught up in a 'best out of three' shogi set which lasted until the early hours of the morning.

She smiled at him. "Sure."

* * *

Naruto turned the key to his apartment, glad that he'd had the foresight to stash everything ninja-related into the large safe in his wardrobe, on the off chance that someone would accompany him home. Azami had never been inside his apartment before; she'd knocked on his door once, but he had to think of a quick lie to send her away, having stupidly left ninjutsu scrolls and kunai all over the floor before he had answered the knock. Needless to say he never made that mistake again.

He held the door open for her, and she walked in, scanning the main room with her eyes. He shut the door behind her and walked through the door into his bedroom, searching for a towel. A few moments later he appeared in the doorway with a white towel draped around his shoulders and spoke to Azami, who had seated herself on the couch.

"I'll be about ten minutes, make yourself at home."

* * *

The hot water rushed down the back of his neck, relieving the tension in his muscles that had been built up from the hard couch at Azami's. _Azami_. It had been just over six months since they'd met at Takahashi's, and they'd grown steadily closer. When he wasn't out training, they could almost always be seen together at the park or ramen stand.

The cause of his reservations over the past week was the upcoming yearly 'Ryu' festival, named for the 'Ryo O' title awarded to the winner of the shogi tournament. Or more specifically, the celebrations which were set to occur on the final night of the festival. It was said to be a relaxing affair, as he hadn't been in the village long enough to see the last one, but it was a requirement that you needed a date to attend.

He had started to have feelings for Azami the night she had kissed him on the cheek, but it wasn't until recent weeks that he had begin to feel something more. '_She's just a civilian, it would never work.'_ He knew it would be difficult to start a relationship with her, never having any experience with relationships in the past, and it would be even more difficult when he inevitably had to leave her. He knew he could never settle down with her, a ninja was a ninja for life. Well…at least as long as life let them be. That was part of the reason his desire to be Hokage wasn't as strong as before; the amount of paperwork they had to put up with sent shivers down his spine. He would wait until he was old enough that he no longer enjoyed mission work as much and his gennin team made jounin before he made his bid for the position.

FLASHBACK

"_A ninja's life can end at any point." Kakashi told him. "We need to make the most of what we have every day and not worry about the little things."_

END FLASHBACK

'_Kakashi-sensei was right,'_ he told himself. There was no use worrying about having to leave her eventually, when you could be killed in seconds if you were in the field, or worse, your lover could be if she were a ninja. At least he could be almost assured that he could have more than a year with Azami before he had to leave for Takigakure.

Smiling to himself, he turned off the water and stepped out of the shower.

'_Thank you, Kakashi-sensei'_

* * *

Azami shifted her feet around on the carpet, uncomfortable just sitting on the couch when she could hear the water running in the shower. She walked over to the bedroom door, moving over to the window. The view was incredible. Naruto's apartment was on the outskirts of the village and four stories up, one of the highest points of the village. There was a slight breeze which blew in as she pulled open the shutters, and her hands gripped the top of her arms at the shoulders in defence to the cold.

Walking a few feet to her left, she sat down in his armchair, eyes roaming around the room. There wasn't much to take in, at any rate. The colour scheme was neutral with a white bedspread and four grey pillows arranged neatly on the bed. The room was spotless, and there was nothing that would indicate that someone lived there, save for a picture frame sitting on his bedside table that she had overlooked before.

Curiosity getting the better of her, she made her way over to the bed and sat on the left side, reaching for the photograph. The picture was of four teenagers in front of a ramen bar. Naruto stood in the centre, wearing long, brown pants and a white jacket lying open, revealing a light blue t-shirt underneath. He was grinning cheekily and winking at the camera. To the left of him stood a pink-haired girl wearing a red shirt and a light blue skirt. She too wore a white jacket which had been left open in a similar fashion to Naruto's, a kind smile on her face. To his right stood a boy in a green jumpsuit, his right foot forward and right arm outstretched, giving the 'thumbs up' to the camera. His hair was cut in a bowl shape, and his eyebrows were alarmingly large. Behind Naruto and the pink-haired girl, was another girl, her arms around their waists and chin resting on the edges of their shoulders, which were just close enough together to support her. She had straight, blonde hair held up in a pony-tail, which fell in front of her shoulders and came down to her collarbone, save for a thick section which stuck out in front of her head, obscuring one eye from the camera.

'_Is one of those girls his girlfriend back home?'_ she thought to herself, stomach tightening at the idea. She knew he had to leave in just over a year, but she hadn't told him that she had to leave a few weeks before he did. Her father had sent her a message recently asking for her to return home at that time. The only reason she had been allowed to leave in the first place was to deal with her mother's death. _'The festival is coming up in a few weeks too…'_

"I see you've found that photo."

She sat up, startled, and turned her head to find Naruto leaning casually against one of the walls on the far side of the room, wearing an orange t-shirt and black shorts.

"Hai…sorry…I don't mean to pry, but…who are they?"

He pushed himself off the wall and took a seat next to her on the bed.

"Sakura-chan, Ino-chan, and Lee-san," he replied, indicating each of them in turn. "We graduated school together. Well, Lee-san was a year ahead of us. They're my three best friends back home."

"Is one of them your…crush?" Azami asked, a red tinge spreading across her cheeks.

Naruto grew hearts in his eyes and clasped his hands together "Lee-kun…"

"NANI!?" she screamed, jumping off the bed and staring at him in shock. "You have a _boyfriend_?!"

"Oh that was good! That was too good!" Naruto was rolling around on the bed with tears in his eyes. "You should have seen the look on your face, Azami-chan!"

Azami turned on him with a glare that could melt steel, and raised her palm.

"BAKA!"

* * *

Naruto held the ice to his face and moaned. _'Why do I always know the angry women?'_

"You should be more careful, Naruto-kun." Azami lectured sweetly.

"Need I remind you who gave me this large red handprint on my face?" he asked through clenched teeth, glaring at the white-haired girl in front of him.

"Oh? Who, then?" she asked cheekily

"You!"

"Me? Why would I do something like that? I would never do something so cruel." Azami pouted.

Naruto groaned and readjusted the ice. "Satan woman."

"…Naruto!"

'_I did __not__ just say that…'_

* * *

Now sporting matching handprints, Naruto made his way to Takahashi's with Azami. It was nearing seven in the evening and he hadn't had ramen all day. Azami liked it, but didn't have nearly the penchant for it that Naruto did, barely putting up with his need to head to the ramen stand at every available opportunity. As of yet she had been unable to dissuade him when he'd had a choice and get him to try something else in the village, so she refused to keep any instant ramen in her cupboard as a concession.

The stand was empty when they got there, Hanae must have been out the back, as the till was missing too – she wouldn't leave it out when she did. Naruto took the far left stool and dug both of his elbows into the counter to rest his chin on, fingers softly rubbing his aching cheek. Azami took the seat next to him.

"Hanae-san?"

Hanae walked out from the back, pulling her work clothes on. "Ohayo Azami-san. You too, Naruto-kun."

"Ohayo Hanae-chan. Sorry I missed lunch. _Someone_ locked me in the house and forced me to eat sushi." He said with a glare.

Hanae giggled. "That's quite alright, we wouldn't want you to eat _just_ ramen – you'd end up short."

"…I'm not short!"

"You will be if you only eat ramen for your stay here!" Azami added, giggling along with Hanae.

"Hey! I ate ramen for ten years and it didn't hurt me!" Naruto yelled back, fist clenching at the thought of his favourite food being subjected to such slander. _'Forgive them oh wise, intelligent and appropriately-tanned ramen gods. They do not know of your greatness'_

"But you didn't eat _just_ ramen for ten years!" Azami pointed out. "…did you?"

Naruto just looked at them and raised an eyebrow, as if it were the most common thing in the world to eat nothing but noodles and broth for ten years.

Azami and Hanae sweat dropped.

"Please tell me he isn't serious, Azami-san"

"He can't be. He'd have died of malnutrition by now." She replied, sizing Naruto up. "Although I wouldn't put it past him to have found some way to gain immortality just so he can stuff his face with ramen more often."

Hanae chuckled and began to prepare their orders, while Naruto's eyes grew distant, contemplating the idea. It was revolutionary! If he could get the Jiongu off Kakuzu, he could just replace his heart if his gathered too much cholesterol…

"…Naruto." Azami trailed off, realising he wasn't paying any attention to what she was saying. "Naruto? Please tell me he isn't considering…he is…what have I done?" she moaned. Did Naruto's obsession with ramen know no bounds?

"You two are becoming quite close lately," Hanae commented, causing Azami to blush and turn away from Naruto to hide it. Naruto had an incredulous look on his face.

"What?! _Close_?! Does this look like _close_ to you?" he asked in mock-anger, lifting his head and exposing his reddened cheeks.

Hanae chuckled. "What did he do to deserve that, Azami-san?"

"Told me he had a boyfriend" she deadpanned.

Naruto jumped up and danced around the shop, prattling on about his 'Lee-kun,' until he was interrupted by a squeal from Hanae.

"Kawaii!"

He immediately stopped dead in his tracks, his arms still in position from his pseudo-waltz. Azami just rolled her eyes.

"You have a _boyfriend_? That's so cute!" Hanae exclaimed, hearts in her eyes. "A forbidden love between two young men…passion-fuelled encounters…midnight rendezvous on rooftops…"

Naruto facefaulted. "I'll never understand why all women seem to like that."

"_I_ don't, baka!" Azami pointed out somewhat aggressively. "Your cheek can tell you that."

"Well it certainly wouldn't tell _you_ anything!" he snapped back. They both glared at each other for a moment before bursting out in laughter.

"Well we'd better fix Hanae-san, I think she's broken"

"Or we could just leave her like that; our ramen _is_ ready after all." Naruto suggested.

"How cold of you. Cold and calloused." Azami mocked. "I like it."

They ate their ramen slowly, shooting glances at each other as they listened to Hanae mumble to herself some sort of story about two boys named Haro and, to Naruto's amusement, Sasuke. Naruto was drinking the broth from his ramen when she mentioned the name, and he almost shot it straight across the counter while trying to avoid choking on the liquid from laughter. Eventually they decided they'd heard enough and nudged the poor ramen chef, who evidently had no idea what had just happened, and was significantly embarrassed when they filled her in.

After they each paid for their meals they stood up and walked off, bidding goodbye to a dreamy-eyed Hanae who had once again fallen deep into the world of blonde-haired, blue-eyed boys. Naruto stopped walking, prompting a curious glance from Azami. _'That sounds far too much like me.'_ Shaking his head, he motioned for her to continue walking, and fell into step beside her.

"Say…Azami-chan?" he started nervously.

"Hai, Naruto-kun?"

"Would you…"

Azami raised an eyebrow. "mmm?"

"Would you like to…go to the festival with me?" he asked slowly, still unsure of himself but not wanting to embarrass himself by stuttering uncontrollably. He blushed and looked away.

Azami's face lit up in a wide smile. "I'd love to, Naruto-kun."

Naruto looked at her in shock for a moment, before smiling and taking her hand in his.

* * *

"Any word on Akatsuki?"

Tsunade sat behind her desk, fists clenched and eyes hard, looking intently at her guest.

"Hai. We can now be certain they are stationed in Amegakure. Kakuzu has been coming and going from there frequently in a pattern common for missing nin taking missions."

"Does that mean they are active again?" She asked. "We're not strong enough. We don't have enough jounin to fend off an attack if they come looking for Naruto, and he won't be strong enough if they find him, either."

"No, it's unlikely. Kakuzu has been leaving less and less lately, and he's generally a pretty reliable way to read their activities. This means that they've collected all the money they need for whatever it is they're planning, and they just need to put it into motion. If their primary concern was harnessing the power of the biju, they wouldn't need to obtain all this money. No. They're after something else for the moment."

"So Naruto is safe for the moment, then?" she asked anxiously.

Jiraiya smirked. "Course he is." He stated confidently, before pausing for a moment and adding "Unless he goes and does something stupid, of course."

The Godaime groaned. "Great. Now I'm full of confidence."

"Hey, give the kid a break. Nobody but you and I know we went to Sanjuka. Nobody will expect him to be sandwiched between Oto, Iwa and Kumo, so unless he goes gallivanting around Oto or something equally stupid, his trail will be too hard to pick up."

Tsunade sighed. "Alright, I see your point. What about his training though? How is he going to become anywhere near strong enough to hold off an Akatsuki on his own without you there? Wouldn't it be better to send someone out to retrieve him? He'd be better trained in the village than walking aimlessly around the countryside, after all"

"Aimlessly, Tsunade-hime? You think that I would leave him all along without giving him something to pass the time?"

"Yes." Tsunade deadpanned. "What did you give him, a copy of Icha-Icha?" she asked sarcastically.

"Well…yes and no…" Jiraiya was sweating heavily, and Tsunade had developed a large tick on her forehead. "You see…it wasn't Icha-Icha as such…it was a book of ninja techniques sealed inside an Icha-Icha so it couldn't be read by anyone else."

Tsunade appeared to have calmed down slightly, but was still glaring daggers at the toad sannin. "And this _ninja_ book was disguised as a _fully-readable pornography book_?"

"…Hai" he answered cautiously.

"And you gave what was then a thirteen year old boy, _said_ _fully readable pornography book_?"

Jiraiya gulped and nodded. He was dead no matter what he said now.

Tsunade was red with anger, and her fist was shaking on the table. "Jiraiya…was that the _only_ Icha-Icha edition you sealed into the book you gave Naruto-kun?" she asked sweetly.

"…No" He answered meekly.

"How many!?" she demanded.

"…All of them."

"_All of them!?_" he really should have started running, but he knew he'd just end up getting it worse next time.

"…And an unreleased draft." He added in a quiet voice, shaking before the towering behemoth that was Tsunade.

**CRASH!**

* * *

Jiraiya moaned, climbing out of the wreckage and pulling himself up three flights of stairs. Tsunade must have really been angry with him this time to throw him down three levels through the floor. Hopefully she'd calmed down by now.

He re-entered her office and she stepped around the Jiraiya-shaped hole in the floor, immediately beginning to heal his three broken ribs and broken arm, along with the various bruises, cuts and holes gauged by large splinters of wood. It was a ritual with them, she would get angry at him, beat him half to death and heal him like nothing ever happened. He could do without the second part, but it was better than her hating him for whatever he'd done to deserve it.

"You're releasing a new book?" Tsunade enquired as she healed his ribcage, no longer ready to attack the injured toad sannin.

"Hai, it's called _Icha Icha Tactics_."

Tsunade smirked and winked at him. "You'll have to give me a copy then. Hopefully it's as good as the last three."

Jiraiya's eyes almost popped out of his head. "You…You read my books?" he asked, completely flabbergasted.

"Well of course I do. It's not like I have much of a social life with all this ridiculous paperwork floating around. I mean does the council really think I'm going to pass a law that says…" she picked up a piece of paper off the top of the pile. "…_This law states that the village council is to be the supreme authority in all matters, and the Hokage will work as a direct subordinate of the council.'_

"Senile old fools." Jiraiya chuckled, still barely able to believe that Tsunade, someone who had physically assaulted him for his perverted actions, had been reading his books the entire time. "So which one was your favourite?"

"Oh that's easy, _Icha Icha Vacations_ for sure." She replied instantly.

Jiraiya sweat dropped and looked like he was about to cry. "Please tell me you're not serious…" at her nod he completely broke down. "That was the only one of my books that was shadow written!" he sobbed.

"Shadow written?" she asked. "Who by?" She was indeed curious to know the identity of the mystery author who had managed to outstrip the famous Jiraiya in the field of adult literature.

Jiraiya stopped crying and began to shiver, ignoring Tsunade's question.

"Who wrote it, Jiraiya" she asked again, having not picked up on his discomfort.

He mumbled something unintelligible under his breath.

"What was that?" she asked with a puzzled expression on her face.

"I said…the person who wrote _Icha Icha Vacations_ was…" He gulped. This was going to hurt. "Naruto."

"NANI?!"

"Well, you see…" he fumbled.

"You had a thirteen year old kid write porn for you to publish?!" she yelled, barely able to believe he would do that.

"Actually…he was twelve at the time and…"

**BOOM! CRASH!**

* * *

Sakura stood outside the Yamanaka flower shop, waiting for Ino to finish working. They had become best friends again a couple of months before Sasuke left. They had both gotten over him – Ino faster than Sakura, but eventually they both did – and would often laugh about their naivety 'back then.'

'Back then' was when Naruto was still there too. In truth she missed him. She missed him a lot. Ino, Naruto, Lee and herself had become a very tight-knit group in the weeks before he left for his trip with Jiraiya, training, eating and wasting time together. They had even got Lee to control his 'youthful outbursts' to some degree.

"You in there, Sakura?" Ino asked, rapping her knuckles on the top of Sakura's head. "I can check if you'd like." She added cheekily, moving her fingers into the seal for the _shintenshin_.

Sakura snapped out of her thoughts and scoffed. "I'd like to see you try Ino, remember what happened last time you tried that?"

Of course Ino remembered, how could she forget her defeat at the hands of Inner-Sakura during the chuunin exam preliminaries? "You only won that because of that _ridiculous_ second personality of yours."

Sakura was clenching her fists at her side, and had developed a large tick. _'To go with her forehead'_ Ino thought with a grin.

"Hurry up and walk Ino-pig! Tsunade-shishou will make us do dodging practice if we're late"

Ino gulped. There was no way in hell she was going to do that again. Tsunade had offered to help her train when she had time off. Ino jumped at the chance and told her she would join Sakura as often as she could. Big mistake. Now she only joined her for the medical lessons, claiming that since she wasn't predominantly a medical ninja, she wouldn't need to be able to dodge everything.

A few minutes later they entered the Hokage tower, and walked through the lobby towards the stairs. The receptionist on the ground floor didn't look twice at them; it wasn't wise to hold up the Hokage's apprentice if you wanted to live a long, happy, and un-neutered life. When they reached the centre of the large hall, Sakura was forced to quickly pull Ino out of the way, her medical ninja dodging senses going off.

**BOOM! CRASH!**

Sakura hurried over to the wreckage and waited for the smoke to dissipate. When it did her eyes bulged.

"Ji…Jiraiya-sama?"

"Well hello ladies, what can I do for you?" he replied with a perverted giggle. Sakura and Ino sweat dropped. Even with four broken ribs, a broken arm and a broken leg he could still try to pick up.

Sakura immediately set to work healing the broken bones, while Ino removed the larger splinters before healing the cuts and bruises. When he was in a semi-acceptable state, save for his ruffled clothes, as well as the dirt and blood adorning them, they headed up to Tsunade's office.

"Jiraiya-sama?" Ino started.

"Yes?"

"If you're here…does that mean Naruto-kun is back too?" she asked with a hopeful tone in her voice.

Jiraiya chuckled and placed a hand on the doorknob to Tsunade's office. "Nope. I left him in the middle of nowhere!" he exclaimed proudly, before turning the knob and walking in, leaving two shell-shocked girls.

"NANI?!"

They both raced in to find Tsunade examining Jiraiya and casting approving glances over at the girls who had clearly healed him. "What do you mean you _left him in the middle of nowhere_?!" Sakura yelled, displaying a very Tsunade-like tick on her forehead, and baring her fist at the intimidated sannin.

"Well…you see I had to do some information gathering and…"

**BOOM! CRASH! SMASH!**

Tsunade cast a glance at the furious Sakura, who had just punched the toad sage through her floor, making yet another Jiraiya-shaped hole in the boards.

"I'll give that one an eight out of ten. I'm proud of you, Sakura-chan."

Sakura beamed. "Hai, shishou!"

* * *

Naruto cursed. He was currently deep within Oto territory, using his _Doton: Dochū Eigyo_ (Underground Projection Fish) and _Doton: Iwagakure _(Hidden Amongst Rocks) techniques to remain undetected by the patrols. They really weren't very good for a ninja village despite their ranking. High gennin at best.

Still, Jiraiya and Tsunade would kill him if they knew he was doing this.

He highly doubted Orochimaru would be stationed in the main village of Otogakure. According to Jiraiya's notes, he would usually move around between numerous bases in Sound Country to avoid being located by Konoha and Akatsuki. His researched forced him to keep large laboratories, forcing him to move large amounts of equipment and data every time.

The _Hiru Bansho_ was a technique Naruto could not wait to get a hold of. He had completed the series of sealing lessons and it hadn't been revealed, leaving Naruto incredibly disappointed. Assumedly Jiraiya didn't know it. He would have bet anything that Orochimaru would though. Sure enough, a flick through Orochimaru's fact-file revealed notes on a report from Anko detailing her fight with him in the forest of death, describing a technique he was positive was the _Hiru Bansho._

Orochimaru's goal was to master every ninjutsu in the world. Naruto figured that a man like him would want to keep all this information 'perfect.' Meaning, he would keep a full library of ninjutsu somewhere. Naruto was banking on his arrogance leading to him storing a library in his quarters in Otogakure. Sure, he probably carried the originals sealed on his person, but having a physical library of jutsu would be a dream come true for him. Naruto's purpose wasn't to ensure that Orochimaru lost all his scrolls; it was to steal them, originals or copies.

Another team of Oto chuunin walked out into the clearing he was watching. He made a hand seal.

"_**Doton: Shinjū Zanshu no Jutsu**_**"**he whispered, slowly disappearing into the ground.

Each of the three chuunin was at least twenty, had black hair, and looked identical. They could have been triplets if not for the fact that each of them had different coloured eyes. Their appearances were rugged and one of the men's flak jackets was ripped. The second had a cigarette in his mouth, while the third dragged a chipped katana along the ground as he walked.

Naruto paused underneath the one who was smoking. He was at the back of the group, so it would be easy to pick him off first. He raised his hands out of the ground and pulled the screaming chuunin completely down into the earth, holding him there until he passed out from lack of oxygen. He would die in a few minutes.

"Shuzo-san!" the sword-wielder screamed, watching his teammate get pulled into the ground. "Kuso" he grunted, prompting his remaining teammate to spin around, already making handseals for a _doton_ technique. He was evidently hoping to flush his opponent out and give his teammate a chance to survive at the same time.

Naruto rose slowly behind him until he was completely out of the ground. He placed a kunai to the ninja's throat

"Ja."

Blood spilled from the dying ninja's throat, as the final teammate raised levelled his katana at Naruto. "I'll…I'll kill you!" he roared, leaping at Naruto, who smirked and replaced his kunai with his left hand, using his right to draw the wakizashi on his shoulder.

Naruto blocked the downward strike effortlessly and smirked. "That is the worst sword I have ever seen in my life." He stated simply, looking into the raging eyes of his opponent.

The chuunin raised his katana once again, winding up for a heavy downward stroke. Naruto simply jabbed his wakizashi a few inches directly forward from the position he had used to block previously, penetrating deep into the enemy's chest. Releasing his left hand from the blade, he reached into his kunai pouch and used one to block the falling sword a few inches from his head.

After pulling his sword out of the enemy, and using the _Doton: Shinjū Zanshu_ technique to bury their corpses, he wiped his wakizashi on the ground and replaced it in his holster. _'Well no one ever said I had to be flashy. That would just get me discovered.'_ He knew he was strong, but he wasn't about to go head to head with half of Otogakure. Dropping each of the three sound headbands he had taken as trophies into a pouch he had expanded the capacity of using a seal, he set off to cover the last few miles to the hidden village. He smirked to himself.

'_They'll never know what hit them'_

* * *

**A/N: Chapter 6 should be out within two or three days from now. Please review with comments, ideas and general feedback, i will reply to any and all reviews which directly adress any of those.**

**Cheers,**

**Lord Bear**

_Shintenshin_ – Mind Body Switch

_Hiru Bansho_ – Leech All Creation

_Doton: Shinjū Zanshu no Jutsu_ – Earth Release: Inner Decapitation Technique


	6. Otogakure

**A/N: Chapter 6 is now up! Thank you to everyone who reviewed last chapter! Enjoy!**

* * *

Naruto sighed as he wiped his blade on the grass beside him. He was still just out of sight of Otogakure and he'd already had to clean up three full patrol teams. He'd collected a few kunai and headbands, but that was about it. All the shuriken were junk, and he barely used them anyway.

"Shuzo-niisan? Maro-san? Juro-san?" a voice called somewhere in the forest. Moments later another voice joined him a few moments later.

'_Shuzo-niisan? Kuso, that's one of the chuunin I killed. That must be their jounin sensei looking for them. But who's the other one? Maybe one of the other chuunin teams' senseis?'_ Naruto thought, lying on the branch of his tree and chewing on a long piece of grass. He had been waiting for fifteen minutes so he could time his arrival in Otogakure and disappear under nightfall.

_Kage Bunshins_ in the forms of each chuunin he'd killed had been sent out into the forest and ordered to run away from any other Oto ninja they saw. Hopefully, that way their superiors would just think they were screwing around and resolve to demote them, instead of launching an investigation when they turned up missing. A moment later, two Oto jounin walked into the clearing below him and began speaking in hushed tones.

"Have you seen the triplets?" One asked.

'_Ah, so they __were__ triplets, then? Or maybe that's a nickname for them. It's possible that they were part of one of Orochimaru's disgusting experiments – that might explain the different coloured eyes…'_

"Yes, they're acting unusually. Those three screwing around? Usually they're violent and ready to pick fights…"

"You don't think that's them?" the first one asked. He was wearing a pair of long camouflage tactical pants, and was bare-chested. He was covered in scars, which evidently he liked to show off.

"I think we've got an intruder." The second replied. His long, brown hair fell down to his shoulders, and he was well-built, indicating a strong taijutsu type.

"We should report in, the village needs to be warned." They looked at each other before preparing to head off.

"I'm afraid I can't let you do that."

They both stopped dead in their tracks and looked up to find Naruto standing on the edge of the branch. His right hand was in his pocket and his left was holding a copy of Icha Icha paradise. His forehead protector was pulled down over his left eye. "Yo."

The two jounin instantly drew kunai and stared at him in shock.

"You…" the bare-chested one began. "Did you kill Niisan, Maro-san, and Juro-san?" he ground out.

"Hai."

"Shuzo-niisan was my brother! I'll make you suffer before you die!"

Naruto looked up over the top of his book, and slowly brought his right hand out of his pocket, causing both Oto nin to flinch. He raised it up to the level of the book and turned the page, his eyesight falling back down onto the literature in front of him. He let out a perverted giggle.

"Wha…What the hell are you doing? You're just a kid anyway!" the brown-haired jounin yelled.

'_Evidently these two aren't the brightest of the bunch. Or maybe they are…that would be a worry'_

Naruto stopped his impromptu tribute to Kakashi and jumped down from his branch, standing a few feet in front of them. He pocketed his book and pulled his forehead protector up, glaring at them. "I can't let you go, remember?"

Both jounin scoffed. "Yeah kid, like you could fight two Oto jounin and live to talk about it." The scarred man taunted, puffing out his chest and holding a thumb to it.

"_**Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"**_

There was no use waiting around for them after all. Naruto began by immediately creating a swarm of shadow clones and sent them to stall the jounin sensei of the 'triplets,' correctly assuming that he was a ninjutsu type, while the other was a taijutsu type. Ninjutsu had always been Naruto's speciality, but it was much more difficult to fight two on one in a ninjutsu fight when one of them is a taijutsu user jumping around and launching kicks at you from behind.

"Looks like it's just you and me then, kid" the remaining jounin taunted, bringing his kunai to his mouth and licking the blade in an attempt to intimidate him. He winced slightly when the blade split his tongue. _'He's got nothing on Anko.'_

The Oto nin immediately went on the offensive. He was good, far too good for Naruto. There were very few weaknesses in his form, so it was difficult for him to apply his _Kurohyo_ style, which focussed solely on exploiting these weaknesses. It was all he could do to defend against the furious attacks. That was until Naruto blocked one of the punches with a closed fist instead of an open fist, and channelled _futon_ chakra through the spirals on his glove.

"What the hell was that, you little shit?" he yelled, clutching his left hand with his other. It had been completely shredded by Naruto's chakra-enhanced knuckle dusters, ripping off all the flesh down to the bone. Naruto looked over to where his clones were still fighting the ninjutsu user. More than half were still left. '_Looks like that dodge-don't-block strategy worked well after all.' _He had figured that, since his clones dispersed when they were hit, they would last far longer if they simply didn't get hit. They had plenty of chakra too, so they could just send waves of ninjutsu at him. In addition, he'd probably be worn out by the time he got his turn, that was a bonus. He turned back to his direct opponent, and winced when he saw him cauterising the wound with a low grade _katon_ jutsu.

"Ouch."

Naruto had never had to deal with something like that in the past. Kyuubi usually healed everything straight away if it was bad enough to interfere with his fighting. That looked painful. He was almost grateful to have a murderous demon in his gut at times like these. _Almost_.

"Of course it's _'ouch'_ you brat," the ninja snapped through clenched teeth.

While not a conventional weakness which can be exploited in his _Kurohyo_ style, having his opponent stand around burning his own hand could certainly be taken advantage of. Naruto ran at the Oto nin, slamming a right fist into his face and following it up with two lefts to the ribcage. He coughed up blood and stumbled backwards a few steps, attempting to retaliate with a kunai swipe, which Naruto ducked under, sweeping his opponent's legs out from underneath him.

His scarred opponent fell flat on his back, throwing his kunai at Naruto's neck in a last ditch effort to kill him. Naruto jumped to the side to avoid it, and brought his wakizashi out of its holster, driving it into his enemy's chest. His swordsmanship wasn't very good yet, but the practice would only help him. He wasn't about to do something stupid like fighting Kisame with it though.

'_Still four left'_ he commented, inwardly proud of the way his clones were standing up to the ninjutsu jounin. After starting with thirty, four remaining after just under five minutes was a vast improvement. Naruto shrugged to himself. _'Why fix what isn't broken?'_

"_**Doton: Shinjū Zanshu no Jutsu**_**"**

He resurfaced behind his opponent, who was sweating lightly, having just finished off the final shadow clone, and snaked out with a kunai slash. His opponent paused as he made his way back up out of the ground, obviously sensing something. He pulled a kunai out of his pocket and spun to block the blow, forcing them into a stalemate.

"You're better than I thought." Naruto stated, mildly surprised. That would have killed the taijutsu user easily.

His new opponent smirked. "I take it you killed Eiichi-san, then?"

"Hair." He replied emotionlessly

"Good. I hated that guy."

The ninjutsu user broke the stalemate, leaping backwards and making handseals.

"_**Katon: Ryūka no Jutsu**_**__****"**

Naruto chuckled. His opponent was a fire-user. That was certainly convenient for him, although it meant his wind affinity wouldn't do much good. A water dragon would be a convenient counter for a fire dragon, though.

**"**_**Suiton: Suiryūdan no Jutsu"**_

The water dragon roared through its fire counterpart, evaporating it and heading towards the Oto nin, who jumped out of the way, barely avoiding being hit by the mass of water. Naruto charged him; too many destructive ninjutsu would alert patrols to his presence, and that would completely ruin his plans.

Throwing two kunai with explosive tags at his opponent, he veered off to the right, anticipating a _Kawarimi_ into the forest. He wasn't disappointed, having him appear a few feet in front of him with a kunai in hand. Left slash, right slash, straight thrust, right slash. The man's kunai work was good. _'I suppose he couldn't have made jounin for nothing. Still, he's low jounin.'_

It only took one mistake for Naruto to capitalise and counter-attack, however. The Oto nin had used two kunai to block a particularly hard overhead strike from Naruto's right hand. Naruto's left charged a _Rasengan_, and slammed it into his chest, causing the jounin to cough up blood, and his eyes to widen, before his body fell limp.

Naruto closed his eyes and tried to sense any other presences in the forest around him. It was a skill Jiraiya had apparently been phenomenal at. 'Apparently,' because Jiraiya himself had said it in the book he gave him. It had taken him the better part of two months' worth of constant application, but eventually he had been able to detect chakra signatures from a few hundred feet away. It was far too difficult for him to be able to sense anything other than the 'signature' of the signal, so he couldn't tell if someone he sensed was a gennin or a kage, or even a civilian, but it was still useful when he needed to check an area such as this. He was sure Zetsu had something similar.

Finding nothing, he stood and stripped the two bodies of their kunai, headbands and papers. He hadn't thought of taking their papers before, but it would be useful to later identify which enemies are out of the equation. The chuunin teams wouldn't be high profile enough to worry about anyway, so it was really no big loss.

After burying them with the _Shinjū Zanshu_ and cleaning his blade once more, he moved on again. There wasn't much time left for him to mess around. The sun had finally set, so he could begin his infiltration. Chuunin patrols usually changed over to ANBU a few hours after nightfall in the larger hidden villages, so he didn't have to worry about the ones he'd killed too much yet. The jounin, however, could have been on patrol or they could have been sent out to give a message or something similar. He furrowed his brow. After a moment he figured he'd do the same thing he did with the chuunin, and created two _Kage Bunshin_ to impersonate them.

* * *

A few minutes later he stepped out onto a branch overlooking Oto, and sweat dropped. _'For someone who hates Konoha, Orochimaru sure as hell made his village look a lot like it.'_ It was almost a carbon copy of Konoha, right down to the gates. He could make out what was evidently the 'Otokage' tower in the distance; identical to the Hokage tower save that it was purple. Technically only the five main powers could consider their leaders 'Kages,' but clearly Orochimaru wouldn't accept that.

Two chuunin were sitting at a desk just inside the main gate, again in identical positions to Konoha's gate guards. He removed his headband and pocketed it; if he was seen, it would be better for him not to be identified as a Konoha shinobi.

"_**Doton: Shinjū Zanshu no Jutsu**_**"**

He loved this jutsu. He really did. It used barely any chakra in comparison to his reserves, and he could use it to travel almost a mile undetected. Well, undetected as long as they couldn't sense his chakra signal, but that was a skill only found in the most elite of ANBU members, Jiraiya, presumably Zetsu, and himself. The only drawback was that it was rather uncomfortable pulling yourself along underground, and movement was slightly slower than it would have been above ground. He could deal with that though.

* * *

Resurfacing behind the Otokage tower, he took a look through a window on the bottom floor to check for anyone. The lights were off and there wasn't anyone in the room. _'I guess they've closed the offices for the night.' _Naruto thought to himself. He reached out with his senses to check for any ninja in the building. There were five. Two on the bottom floor, one guarding a room which was presumably Orochimaru's office, and another two guarding a room which had to be the library, based on the layout of the Hokage's office. _'Was he really stupid enough to give away his tactical advantage in knowing Konoha's layout by copying it?'_ he asked himself. _'He probably only created Oto to build a 'Konoha' he could be Kage of.'_ Naruto let out a soft chuckle. That was so horribly immature.

The two guards on the bottom floor would be able to be bypassed, as would the one guarding his office, if he was quiet enough gaining access to the building and killing the two guarding the library. If not, he could have the entire village on alert. That would be bad.

Naruto crossed his fingers in a hand seal, and created a few dozen clones. He whispered orders to them and they nodded, transforming silently into ANBU gear using a _henge_ and disappearing back into the ground using the _Shinjū Zanshu_, heading out to complete their task.

Attaching chakra to his limbs, he began to scale the back of the Otokage tower. He doubted he would be discovered, thanks to having nothing but the obviously man-made mountain, depicting Orochimaru's face, directly behind him. Three floors up saw him at a ledge which he would be able to stand on, as well as a window through which was a hallway a few turns from where the two guards were stationed.

It had taken him a couple of days to figure out a method to get in without smashing the window and alerting everyone, and another couple to master it, practicing on his own apartment window at night. Rokuro would kill him if he found out what he had been doing.

He placed the palm of his left hand flat against the centre of the square window, channelling chakra into it, similar to the water-walking and tree-climbing exercises. With his right hand he reached to his belt from his squat position, and unsheathed one of his black tanto. He lifted it to the top right hand corner of the window, and pressed it down between the window and the glass, running it down the side and removing the silicon lining.

After he had done the same thing to the other three sides, the glass fell away, held only by the chakra he was channelling through his hand. He lowered it onto the ledge he was squatting on, and leant it against the outer wall of the tower. He didn't bother cleaning it for prints, nor did he bother wearing gloves. Ninja villages never kept records of their shinobi's fingerprints, the only use they would ever be was to the enemy in order to prove the village was responsible for something that happened to them.

Carefully, he climbed through the window and attached himself to the walls. The window was high, so he gradually lowered himself down so he wouldn't land with a noise. The only sounds in the corridor were the two guards, who were talking quietly. Evidently they were unaware of his presence. He needed to silently take them both out at once. Coming this far would have been a waste if they raised the alarm. He made a hand seal, and two _Kage Bunshins_ popped silently into existence. They nodded to him and stepped around the corner, speaking softly in unison.

"_**Kanashibari no Jutsu"**_

Naruto followed them around the corner after hearing this. The two guards were completely frozen in fear. Calmly, he walked up to them and knocked them out one by one, laying them down on the ground and ordering his clones to gag them and tie them up. He would have killed them, but they looked like fresh gennin. _'They must have been cannon fodder to raise the alarm. Orochimaru should have known that they wouldn't be any sort of match for a ninja who had managed to get that far.'_ He took pity on them because of this. They were betrayed by their leader and he knew that must feel horrible. They would realise it when they woke up.

* * *

The library wasn't as large as he'd hoped for, but it was still almost as extensive as the one Jiraiya had given him in the Icha Icha book. Orochimaru probably carried the rest of his collection on his person. Thankfully he had brought plenty of sealing paper and ink. After creating several more _Kage Bunshin_ and sending them off to begin sealing the scrolls up, he began the search for the main prize.

A few moments later he was looking at an unravelled scroll he'd pulled down from one of the shelves. His clones were almost halfway through sealing the rest of the scrolls.

_Hiru Banshō no Jutsu_

_This jutsu allows the user to fuse with any nearby object and take on its properties. The user can move around within the object by applying a steady flow of chakra, and even transfer between materials with practice. If the object the user is occupying is attacked, the user will feel this, just as the material would. However, if the material is destroyed, this does not necessarily mean the user will also. If the body of the user is stronger than the material he or she is in, for example a mound of soft soil, the user will bear the damage as if they were the one attacked. Conversely, if the body of the user is weaker, for example if it were used to hide in a rock, the body of the user will be destroyed if the attack is strong enough to break the rock. The maximum distance which can be travelled using this technique is five miles, and there is rarely any discomfort while using it._

_Handseals: Rat_

The scroll bore the official seal of Kusagakure on it. _'Heh, lucky I came here then. Kusagakure was my first idea. Orochimaru probably stole this one a long time ago.'_ He studied it for a few minutes before pocketing it and turned to his clones, who had assembled a set of seven storage scrolls on the table and were putting the finishing touches on sealing the remaining scrolls off the shelves, which had by now been stripped completely bare.

Naruto removed a thick scroll from his pocket. It wasn't anywhere near the size of a summoning scroll, but it was still rather large in comparison to regular scrolls. Once his clones had completed their task and dispersed he sealed the seven scrolls they had made into the thick scroll, and replaced it in his pocket. He took a moment to survey his handiwork, Orochimaru's thoroughly empty library, and smirked.

_'Well would you look at that.'_

* * *

As he was climbing out the window he had entered from, he paused, eyes growing pensive before he turned around and headed back into the tower. _'The office should be on the next floor.'_ He reached out to check if anyone else had entered the tower, but found that there were only the three conscious guards, and the two he had knocked out. The stairs creaked, so he was forced to use chakra to stick to the wall in the stairwell and climb along beside them.

Naruto tilted his head around the corner and inwardly sighed when he saw another gennin guarding a large set of double doors at the end of the hallway, the gennin's gaze focussed down a hallway which turned to the right from Naruto's perspective.

'_Well I guess she'd hardly expect an intruder to take the stairs.'_

The girl's hand was fingering a small red button on a device she held in her hand. Naruto bit back a curse. That thing was obviously a panic button, and she was too far away to catch in a _Kanashibari_. Figuring it was time to test his genjutsu skills, facing an unsuspecting gennin and not really having any other choice; he began to weave a subtle illusion that froze the girl's surroundings in place. It wasn't much, but he already knew he'd never be a master genjutsu-user. He just needed to get close enough to apply the _Kanashibari_.

After moving the unconscious and bound gennin inside a cupboard in the hallway in case one of the other guards decided to make a patrol, he opened the double doors and made his way over to Orochimaru's desk. Grinning, he sat in the chair, taking the purple Otokage robes and hat from a stand and putting them on. Of course, he wasn't there to fool around and play 'evil sannin,' so he began to filter through papers in his drawers.

He didn't expect there to be much in the way of sensitive information in there, but it was worth a try anyway. A few minutes of sorting pulled up a number of scrolls on Otogakure's finances, jounin ninja, and a copy of a treaty between Oto and Kumo. Naruto quickly sealed these into another scroll, and continued to search. The bottom drawer of the desk contained two scrolls, one entitled _'Ten no Juin'_ and the other…

Naruto gasped.

'_How…how did he get a hold of __that__ information?'_

He quickly pocketed both scrolls in addition to the one containing the other documents, and opened a high window on the side of the room. He climbed out and stood on the ledge below. The bottom of the window was level with his neck, so he took one last look inside. Orochimaru really was a neat-freak. Everything was perfectly orderly and there were piles upon piles of neatly completed paperwork dotted around the room.

Naruto smirked sadistically. _'Surely he won't mind…'_

"_**Suiton: Bakusui Shōha no Jutsu"**_

Naruto's chest convulsed as he leaned back, before lurching forward and spraying gallons of water out of his mouth and through the open window, slowly filling the entire room and destroying all of the paperwork, as well as the room's fittings. He only stopped when the water level reached the height of the window he was standing at, and shut it. Orochimaru shouldn't be too disappointed with his activities. Sure, he'd lost countless technique scrolls, official documents, stacks of paperwork, as well as his robes and hat, but he'd gained so much more. How many Kages could say they had their own personal fish tank for an office?

* * *

Naruto stood on top of what he assumed to be called 'Otokage Mountain,' and looked over the village, still wearing the Otokage robes and hat. The clones he had sent out earlier had each notified him they were in position, him having developed a very limited communication technique through which he and the clones could project thoughts into each other's heads at the cost of chakra. He crossed his arms and gave the order to proceed.

Each of the clones stood by the high-powered explosive tags Naruto had created, and channelled chakra into them.

**BOOM!  
**

On top of the mountain, Naruto smirked as he watched the fireworks. It was great to see a plan come together, especially one as dangerous as this. He'd had his clones place the tags he had created from Jiraiya's sealing lessons on the base of key structures in Otogakure. Armouries, the power plant, what he believed to be ANBU headquarters, and points dotted along the outer wall. All were reduced to rubble in seconds.

Far below him he could see the ANBU gather in the streets, their captains barking orders to them. It was time to take his leave. He would get as far away as he could, and wouldn't stop running until he was well clear of Oto's borders. He looked up at the moon and smiled.

"_**Hiru Banshō no Jutsu"**_

* * *

**A/N: Can anyone guess what was in the other scroll? Please continue to review with your comments, suggestions and feedback. Chapter 7 should be out tomorrow or the next day.**

**Cheers,**

**Lord Bear**

_Doton: Shinjū Zanshu no Jutsu_ - Earth Release: Inner Decapitation Technique**  
**

_Katon: Ryūka no Jutsu_ - Fire Release: Dragon Fire Technique

_Suiton: Suiryūdan no Jutsu_ - Water Release: Water Dragon Blast Technique

_Kanashibari no Jutsu_ - Temporary Paralysis Technique

_Hiru Banshō no Jutsu_- Leech all Creation Technique

_Ten no Juin_ – Cursed Seal of Heaven

_Suiton: Bakusui Shōha no Jutsu _- Water Release: Exploding Shockwave Technique


	7. Tsunade's Deception

**A/N: Ouch, this chapter was pretty difficult to write. Theres a small gap until the next piece of action and i had a few things i wanted to develop** **before that came about. Anyway, it's finally up, so thanks to all the reviewers from the last chapter, and keep 'em coming! Enjoy!**

* * *

Naruto collapsed on his bed, still wearing the uniform of the Otokage. It had been hell trying to evade the Otogakure pursuit teams, but he'd eventually lost them near the edge of Oto territory, after a risky, yet successful detour into Lightning Country forcing them to back off. Evidently, Orochimaru had decided not to inform them of the treaty between the two countries Naruto had found in his office. If he had, they would have had no issues with following him into Kumo's territory. His original plan was to get as far away as possible using the _Hiru Banshō_, and run directly to Sanjuka, hoping they wouldn't have been able to pick up his trail while he was underground.

Things don't always go to plan.

He had figured that since the technique was so similar to the _Shinjū Zanshu_ that he wouldn't have any problems performing it after studying it while his clones were packing up Orochimaru's ninjutsu library. Unfortunately, that was not the case. The technique had given out on him a few hundred feet after he had passed under Otogakure, and five ANBU had spotted him immediately, forcing him to change direction and head on foot towards Kumo, where he'd hoped to lose them. Eventually three had been left behind, and two had caught up with him a few miles into Lightning Country.

The battle was slightly longer than he would have hoped for, them being above average grade for an ANBU; he figured he should be stronger having a year's worth of training either with Jiraiya or with the materials Kakashi and Jiraiya gave him. He still had a year before he had to return to Takigakure, so with more training and the information gathered from Orochimaru, he hoped to be able to defeat enemies of that calibre comfortably. He had taken their armour and ninjaken and sealed them into a scroll; they might be useful later. He also made a quick sketch of the ANBU tattoo on their shoulders, which he had a suspicion might have been a cover for a seal of some description.

The whole excursion had taken him just over two weeks. Two weeks he had told Azami that he was heading to a nearby village to pick up an outfit he'd had made for the Ryu festival. He could back that up too, he'd stopped at a village on his way to Takigakure during his trip a long time ago to have a couple made, knowing he would require them if he was to be in the village for at least two of these festivals, and collected them on his way back.

He'd originally only anticipated taking eight to nine days or so in Oto, but the detour had cost him. Fortunately he had told Azami he would take two weeks to get the clothing as insurance against delays, so she was expecting him to have returned tomorrow.

After heaving himself up onto his bed, he folded the Otokage robes and placed them at the bottom of his bag, mentally giving himself a pat on the back for pulling off such an audacious plan, coupled with a number of increasingly antagonistic 'pranks'. The snake sannin would be spewing when he found out.

Changing out of his uniform and into a pair of boxers – ramen covered, of course – he packed away everything ninja-related into the combination safe in his wardrobe. He wasn't going to risk someone looking through the window and spying something incriminating. After taking a final look around the room for anything that might give him away, he climbed into his bed and was asleep as soon as he hit the pillow.

* * *

Orochimaru barely resisted the urge to kill his subordinates. How could they let someone sneak into _his_ village without anyone even being able to identify them? How was that even possible? _'Incompetent fools.'_

"What are the damages?" he snarled.

"Multiple sections of the village's walls have been destroyed, a number of weapon workshops and armouries have been razed, as has the power plant, and the ANBU headquarters has taken significant damages, Orochimaru-sama" The jounin replied, standing perfectly straight at attention.

Orochimaru cursed under his breath. _'The wall? The whole damn wall is ruined? That will take weeks to repair.'_

"What of the death toll? How many ninja have I lost?"

The jounin stiffened visibly. "Three teams of chuunin, two jounin and two ANBU, we believe. None of their corpses have been found. Three gennin guarding the Otokage tower have had the _K__anashibari_ used on them, but were spared. They remember nothing of their attacker save for blonde hair and a long white coat."

Again Orochimaru cursed. "What did they want in the tower? And what about the other two gennin that should have been on guard?"

"We don't know what they were searching for yet. As far as we can tell, nothing in the tower we are permitted to investigate has been touched. The rooms you forbade us to enter have not yet been searched." His jounin replied, walking a few feet to his right of his leader, as Kabuto and Sasuke trailed slightly behind them. "The other two gennin were stationed on the bottom level, and we believe they were never aware of the intrusion. None of the panic buttons were activated, and a window was found removed on the fourth floor, so it's almost certain he entered there and bypassed the other guards."

Orochimaru was listening, but his eyes were trailing out over his village, which was just coming into view. Ninja filled the streets as their superiors barked out orders in an effort to rebuild the walls. A few building dotted around the village had been reduced to rubble on the ground, and he winced when he imagined the valuable weaponry which had been lost in some of them. A small amount of intelligence would have most likely been lost in the partial destruction of ANBU headquarters, but the bulk of it was kept in secret bunkers around the village in case of situations like this one.

"Was there damage to the treasury?" he asked, sincerely hoping that their mysterious intruder hadn't been able to make off with a portion of the money he required to run a village. Money he had spent years collecting from bounties and raiding smaller villages.

"No. The treasury remains untouched, Orochimaru-sama."

Kabuto and Sasuke said nothing. Sasuke had changed from the slightly less than a year's worth of training he had undergone with the snake sannin. He had grown a few inches taller and wore a loose white shirt with a purple bow around his waist, signifying his allegiance to sound as one of their elite. A straight-bladed katana was sheathed and slung across his back on a shoulder strap. He wore long ninja pants in a similar style to his sensei, strapping his shins from his ankles to the hems of his pants.

Sasuke smirked as he watched Orochimaru become increasingly agitated as his subordinate described the damages. Personally, he couldn't care less. It was laughable. He had worked hard under the man for months, his sensei finally having gotten around to training him. He could comfortably defeat any of the group once known as Sound Four regularly now, save for Sakon and Ukon with their weird ability; naturally Orochimaru had never taught him a defence for someone trying to take over his body. But he would make one. Oh he would. Orochimaru would never control _him_! He would kill the fool as he tried to transfer his mind.

Orochimaru sneered, pushing the gennin standing guard on the bottom floor of Otokage tower out of the way, and proceeded up the stairs. "Were you able to find his trail?"

The jounin shook his head. "No. Three of our ANBU lost him just within our borders. He was fleeing into Kumogakure's territory."

At this Orochimaru's head snapped around, staring pointedly at the shinobi for more information.

"We believe two other ANBU managed to track him further into Kumo territory, but we haven't received contact from them. They are presumably dead and were included on the list of fatalities."

Orochimaru's eyes narrowed. _'Kumo? Are they turning their backs on us?'_

He scowled and reached for the door to his office.

**WHOOSH!**

Orochimaru blinked. Then blinked again. He was soaked with water from head to toe. His eye twitched madly as he began to lose his composure. He rounded on his jounin subordinate and glared at him menacingly, wet hair swinging around and slapping against his face.

"**Why the FUCK was my office filled with water?!"**

Kabuto and Sasuke watched with equally irritated expressions as the snake sannin advanced on the petrified shinobi in front of him, hand reaching into his holster for a kunai. He found one and brought it out, grabbing his target by the neck with his left hand and slamming him against the wall. He stabbed the kunai into the man's left arm.

"You incompetent _fools_! How could you _possibly_ overlook the fact that the most important room in the _entire_ village had been converted into a veritable aquarium?!"

The jounin was spluttering uncontrollably. "You told us never to enter that room!"

Orochimaru backhanded him on the cheek and threw him straight through the outer wall of the tower. He stepped up to the hole and shouted down at the falling jounin.

"You could have looked through the _damn_ window!"

Kabuto raised an eyebrow. "Was that necessary? You just dropped him four stories, after all."

"If he's worth his weight in salt, he will live," Orochimaru snarled. "If he does not, I have no use for weak shinobi."

Kabuto nodded his head, accepting this. Sasuke's brow was still itching, as his wet mop hung down in front of his face. Smirking, he placed his fingers into the _Tori_ seal, and channelled a miniscule amount of fire chakra into his fingers. He separated his hands, and moved them around his head, drying his hair. A few seconds later Kabuto looked at him quizzically.

"What?"

Kabuto merely pointed to his head.

He smelled smoke.

'_Oh shit.'_

Sasuke sprinted over to a small water feature on the left side of the Otokage's office – one of the few things in the room that legitimately required water – and began to dunk his hair frantically in the basin-like object. Kabuto quietly slipped out of the room.

Orochimaru, meanwhile, was shuffling around trying to assess the damage, letting out a growl every few seconds as he discovered something had been destroyed. He strode over to his desk and roughly pulled at the drawers. He couldn't remember what exactly he had kept in his desk, spending more time outside of the village than in it. One thing he could remember though. The treaty between Otogakure and Kumogakure was in one of the drawers; fortunately it had been waterproofed with a seal to protect it, so it wouldn't have perished in the 'flooding' of his office. He lifted the drawer completely out of the desk and set it on top.

It was empty.

The treaty scroll was gone.

Orochimaru pursed his lips and drew his brows together. _'The intruder was headed towards Kumo…had they betrayed him?'_ He would be having _serious_ talks with the Raikage over this incident.

"Sasuke, go and find Kidomaru. Tell him I require his presence here."

Sasuke nodded, and left the room.

Kabuto chose this moment to return, a worried expression on his face.

"What is it, Kabuto?" Orochimaru ground out in the most pleasant manner he could, considering the circumstances.

"Your library. It's gone." He replied

"My library?"

Kabuto nodded.

"Is _gone_?"

Again, Kabuto nodded.

Orochimaru stood stock still for a moment, before letting out a scream of frustration and punching a hole right through his desk. The desk succumbed to the pressure and collapsed upon itself on the ground, destroying the soaked documents it contained.

"Damnit Kabuto. What the hell am I going to do with this village now?" Orochimaru screamed at his right-hand man. "Months worth of paperwork has been destroyed, hundreds of Jutsu scrolls stolen, my entire office ruined, and to top it all off I need to make a new set of Otokage robes to replace these destroyed ones." He gestured to a stand in the corner behind him.

"Destroyed ones, Orochimaru-sama?" Kabuto questioned.

He raised an eyebrow in response, and slowly turned to the stand he had indicated.

"He stole the Otokage robes too?" He ground out in disbelief. "_And_ the hat?"

Kabuto maintained a blank look on his face. "It would seem that way."

After few seconds of grumbling on Orochimaru's part and silence on Kabuto's, Sasuke return to the office with Kidomaru in tow.

"You requested me, Orochimaru-sama?"

The snake sannin looked over his shoulder at the voice.

"See to it that my office is returned to full functionality by the end of the day. I also want you to ensure that all guarded facilities now have at least two chuunin on post at any time."

"Hai, will that be all?" Kidomaru asked.

Orochimaru thought for a moment, eyes wandering back to the empty coat stand in the corner.

"No. Issue a kill-on-sight order to anyone wearing the Otokage robes." He replied.

"Hai, Orochimaru-sama." He bowed and left the room.

Sasuke smirked. _'Hn. Errand boy.'_

His sensei looked at him for a moment, before pulling a small sheet of paper out of his pocket which had miraculously survived the blast of water, and scribbling an address down on the page.

"Go to this address and have me a new set of robes made."

Sasuke's eyebrow twitched. "Hai, sensei" he grunted, turning around and exiting.

Kabuto regarded his master with confusion. "Was that really a good idea?"

"Was _what_ a good idea Kabuto? Do not question my judgement." He snapped. It had not been a good day for him.

"Ordering new robes." The medic-nin replied.

"Why the hell wouldn't it be?"

Kabuto raised an eyebrow. "Because of the order you just gave Kidomaru."

Orochimaru raised his own eyebrow in response. _'What order?'_

FLASHBACK

_Orochimaru thought for a moment, eyes wandering back to the empty coat stand in the corner._

"_No. Issue a kill-on-sight order to anyone wearing the Otokage robes." He replied._

"_Hai, Orochimaru-sama." He bowed and left the room._

END FLASHBACK

'_Oh shit.'_

* * *

It was mid-morning when Naruto awoke, groaning and trying to catch a glimpse out the window to gauge the time. Something was wrong. He couldn't see anything. Had he gone blind? His thoughts ground to a halt at the possibility. It couldn't be, could it? All he could see was white. White everywhere. Surely he wasn't…

"Good morning, Naruto-kun!" came the enthusiastic, sing-song voice of Azami, as she gave him a quick hug and pulled herself up onto her knees on the bed next to him, beaming at the groggy blond below her. As her hair lifted off his eyes, he gave a sigh of relief – he wasn't blind. But something still had him confused.

"Azami-chan?" he began.

"Mmmm, Naruto-kun?"

"Why are you on my bed?" he asked innocently.

Azami grinned and looked him in the eye. "You said you were coming back today, so I came to welcome you back!"

Naruto raised an eyebrow. It was true, after all. He _had_ said that he would be coming home today. But that still didn't explain…

"And how, exactly, did you get into my apartment?" he asked with a blank face, curious rather than angry.

Azami looked at him quizzically. "Through the door, of course!"

Naruto's eyebrow twitched. "And may I enquire as to _how_ you managed to get through the door?"

"Nope!" she declared proudly, sticking her tongue out at him and giggling.

Naruto rolled his eyes and stared at her.

"I used the key." She told him.

"What key?"

She raised an eyebrow at him. "The one you gave me just before you left."

Naruto grunted and rolled around under the covers. He didn't remember giving her a key. Of course he was still waking up, so he wasn't entirely conscious. It sounded like something he might have done though. He trusted her. She'd had hundreds of opportunities to kill him and she hadn't, so she obviously wasn't an enemy ninja.

At the moment she was kneeling next to him on the queen bed in his apartment, wearing small green shorts and a loose, long-sleeve, white shirt. _'It must be warm outside'_ he thought absently.

He sighed, reaching up and running a hand through his hair, as he remembered that he had, in fact, given Azami a key. He'd lost a bet with her and had to give it up in response. The cunning little girl had been plotting to sneak in periodically and hide his instant ramen supply around the apartment. She'd done it regularly too. In the few weeks between asking her to the festival and leaving for Oto, she'd hidden his precious ramen cups eleven times, prompting him to show up at Takahashi's downtrodden, and Hanae to try and cheer him up. Azami of course, giggled throughout the entire experience, Hanae wondering what she was laughing at, seeing as Naruto was far too depressed each time to mumble something vaguely coherent which would alert Hanae to Azami's evil-doings.

"Oh yeah, that key" he mumbled, squinting to block out some of the light.

Azami nudged him and he rolled over onto his side, looking back towards her.

"Get up Naruto-kun, I'm hungry!" she demanded, pouting at him.

"There's Ramen in the cupboard, let me sleep…" he muttered, closing his eyes again.

Azami giggled. "Actually, there isn't."

"What? There was at least ten cups when I left…" he thought out loud, before rolling his eyes. "Let me guess, you've hidden them again."

The girl next to him chuckled nervously. "Well actually…I kind of ate them all."

"You _what_?" Naruto growled venomously. "You ate my ramen? Why did you eat my ramen?!"

"Well…" she began. "I didn't have any and Takahashi's was shut, so I couldn't buy any fresh ramen _or_ cupped ramen."

Naruto let out a sigh of relief and clutched his hands together under the blanket in prayer. _'An amiable reason, oh great, insightful and magnificently sculpted ramen gods.'_

"_**Hai, Naruto-kun. She is worthy."**_

Naruto almost jumped out of his skin. The ramen gods responded to him? He must be in their favour. _'I wonder if I can do Hidan's immortality thing?'_ he thought to himself. _'Nah…best not to risk it.'_

"I'll tell you what. Since I ate all your ramen, I'll pay for Takahashi's this lunch" she suggested with a warm smile.

Naruto was sold at 'I'll pay'.

Shaking his head to clear it somewhat, he pulled the covers off himself and climbed out of bed, walking over to the cupboard to select something to wear. Azami watched him walk across the room in his boxers, giggling and blushing madly. Naruto looked over his shoulder and raised an eyebrow at her, before turning back to the cupboard. He didn't really care. They'd both walked in on each other changing, preparing for showers and such a few times in recent weeks, never in less than their underwear though. He _did_ practice his water walking in his boxers in the middle of a lake, after all.

He selected a pair of black shorts and an orange top, showering quickly before returning to find his bed made. He raised an eyebrow at Azami in question, who shrugged and told him she'd had nothing better to do. She rolled her eyes seeing him dressed in his beloved orange. Just because he'd realised orange was a 'kill me' colour for a ninja, didn't mean he was above wearing it casually.

"Get moving, ramen boy, I don't want to have to put up with the lunch rush," she lectured, poking her tongue out at Naruto.

"Hai, Hai, coming."

Naruto sighed. Shikamaru was right. Women _are_ troublesome.

* * *

"Make sure all ANBU units are on constant call. Oto and Kumo could attack at any time. It is imperative that we are ready for them."

"Hai, Hokage-sama"

Tenzo disappeared to complete his orders, while Tsunade slouched in her seat and massaged her temples with her thumb and index finger. Looking left and right a few times, she slowly reached for the sake bottle…

"Tsunade-sama! You should not be drinking now!" Shizune lectured, appearing behind the Godaime and causing her to jump.

"You're not the one who has to deal with two invading ninja villages." Tsunade commented dryly.

Shizune rolled her eyes and walked out of the office to collect another stack of paperwork.

Konoha had been at war with Oto ever since the chuunin exams a couple of years ago. There was no need to push for a peace treaty with them, nor was there any possibility of it. It _was_ run by a lunatic intent on crushing them, after all. Over the last year, the tension had been slowly escalating. Oto had been waiting for one of the four other ninja powers to back them up, and three months ago that had likely come in the form of an alliance with Kumogakure; a village with deep-rooted hate towards Konoha due to their defeat in the third great ninja war and their failure to obtain the Byakugan.

Tsunade knew it was only a matter of time until they put together a force and invaded. It was just a matter of how much time. As it were, Konoha was practically on its own. Suna had taken considerable losses during the Konoha invasion, and were still working to rebuild their ninja force. Taki was reclusive, and rarely involved itself in the politics of other villages until they were dragged into a full-scale war, despite their peace treaty with Konoha. It was very difficult to gauge whether any support would come from them, so it was best not to count on it. Iwa were traditionally enemies of Konoha, so it was likely that they would be easily persuaded by Oto to ally with them too.

"Oh Tsunade-hime…" came a mischievous voice of Jiraiya from the windowsill.

Tsunade groaned. "What do you want Jiraiya? I have a war to deal with." she asked aggressively. She was not in the mood to put up with his advances today.

Jiraiya chuckled and pulled up a chair beside her. "Don't worry, Tsunade-hime. I'm sure you'll do great." He told her supportively, placing a hand over hers.

Tsunade scoffed and rolled her eyes, but her hands were trembling and telling a different story. "No I won't." she began. "Tell you what. If I last through the war, I'll go on a date with you."

Jiraiya's eyes bugged out. For fifty odd years he'd been asking his old teammate for dates, and never had she once agreed. Usually he found himself thrown through a building, bloodied and beaten against a wall, or his personal favourite, flying through the sky across the village. Admittedly, he'd deserved most of those for peeping on her, but still…

He gave her a warm, genuine smile. "You're on, Tsunade-hime."

She tried to smile back, but tears began to well in the corner of her eyes. She bit back a sob and looked Jiraiya in the eyes. He nodded, and she collapsed into his chest, crying.

"Damnit Jiraiya! What the hell am I going to do? There's no way we can survive against Oto and Kumo as we are! And Suna is in shambles too! I'm going to be the Hokage to let Konoha fall after sixty years!"

She renewed her sobbing and Jiraiya just let her cry into his chest, patting her on the back every few seconds. He waited until she had cried herself out before he spoke.

"Then you may be interested to know something I heard from my spy network."

Tsunade looked up slowly, still clutching his shirt.

"One of my spies in Oto tells me that there was in intruder who broke into Otogakure a week or so ago." He told her.

Tsunade's eyes widened and she sat back in her chair. "An intruder? Who? Where from?"

Jiraiya fixed his gaze over her shoulder at a point on the wall. "They don't know. Nobody knows. Orochimaru was outside the village when it happened."

"What were the damages to the village?" Tsunade asked. This could be the break she so desperately needed. Whoever said she wasn't lucky?

"Thirteen dead; nine chuunin, two jounin and two ANBU. The outer wall was almost completely destroyed, as were a number of weapon arsenals, along with the village's power plant. Their ANBU headquarters also took heavy damage."

Tsunade gasped, her eyes clearing and a smile finally returning to her face. "As harsh as it sounds, that's fantastic news. Do you know what they were after?"

"My operative tells me nobody is sure, not even Orochimaru. It seems a number of items were stolen from Otokage tower though."

"What items?" she asked, the smile dropping from her face. If there were powerful artefacts her wayward teammate had kept locked up in there, the intruder may have been from Akatsuki. If Akatsuki had managed to gain control of new weapons, that may have been even worse for them than the Oto-Kumo assault.

Jiraiya chuckled. "They emptied Orochimaru's entire ninjutsu library and stole his Otokage robes and hat."

Tsunade snorted, but there was a smile firmly plastered on her face. "So it's a smartass burglar? I'm guessing they were just after techniques, then?"

The toad sage smirked. "There's one last thing which is thought to have been stolen."

"And what is that?"

He paused for a moment, before replying. "An alliance treaty between Oto and Kumo."

Tsunade's eyes widened.

"You know what this means, don't you?" Jiraiya continued. "The intruder was last tracked heading into Kumo territory. Orochimaru believes Kumo have pulled out on them and decided to steal the treaty back. According to my source, he has been in talks with the Raikage, who denied any knowledge of it, but appears to be using this as an opportunity to try and bargain for an improved treaty to benefit them. If he truly didn't order it, he's doing a good job convincing Orochimaru he did."

His old teammate's jaw fell open in shock.

"This means the invasion has been cancelled for now!" he exclaimed, laughing heartily.

Tsunade gasped, before letting out an uncharacteristic whoop of joy and throwing herself back into his arms, planting a long kiss on his cheek in joy.

Jiraiya, for his part, was in heaven. That is, until she slapped him.

"So that's why you took my bet. You already knew you'd won." She accused, the corners of her lips still turned up in a smile. His shoulders sagged and his head drooped down. He was so close, and he'd blown it.

"I guess that means our date is off, huh?" he asked sadly, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly and laughing, trying to pretend he was fine.

Tsunade smirked. "I never said that, did I?"

Jiraiya look stunned, before letting out a cry of joy and jumped around the room, elated that he was finally going to get the dream he'd held since he was a teenager.

"That is, if I ever finish all this paperwork," she replied, gesturing to the huge stacks of incomplete forms piled up around the room.

Jiraiya stopped dead in his tracks and looked around the room at the absurd amount of work she'd let pile up.

"You know, there's one thing I forgot to tell you about the break in." he began.

"Oh really, what's that?" she asked curiously.

"The intruder – whoever he was – decided to fill Orochimaru's office up entirely with water. It destroyed the room, soaked him when he opened the door, and ruined piles upon piles of completed paperwork."

Tsunade was in stitches laughing. She almost felt sorry for Orochimaru. _Almost_. Having so much paperwork destroyed was a fate you would barely wish upon your worst enemy.

She looked around at her own, incomplete, paperwork and smirked.

* * *

**Three hours later**

"I'm telling you, Kakashi, just concentrate on your ANBU missions for the moment. I placed you back there while Naruto and Sakura were training for a reason. After the break in at Otogakure, things should cool down a bit" Tsunade told him, standing outside her office door along with Shizune.

She reached for the doorknob

"But Tsunade-sama, I thou-"

**WHOOSH!**

Tsunade screamed, jumping out of the way to avoid the tidal wave of water rushing out of the room, drenching Kakashi and an irate Shizune.

"Oh no" she began, her lip quivering. "Do you think it was the same intruder from Otogakure? I have to alert the ANBU, he could be here right now!" she cried frantically, racing down the hallway and out of the tower.

Shizune and Kakashi both sweat dropped.

"She's so obvious, isn't she?" her apprentice commented to the masked jounin, taking a look through the door and gawking at the pieces of soggy paperwork filling the room.

"**Tsunade-sama!"**

* * *

Tsunade chuckled to herself, as Jiraiya stepped out of a nearby alleyway and walked along side her.

"Where to, my lovely lady?" he asked her in a tender voice.

She rolled her eyes and laughed at him. "Oh come off it Jiraiya, we both know that voice isn't you."

He chuckled and stuck his hands in his pockets. "So where do you want me to take you on our date?"

She shrugged, "Nowhere too fancy."

Her fellow sannin shrugged and nodded his assent. "Any ideas?"

She thought for a moment, before smirking and replying. "Ichiraku ramen?"

Jiraiya laughed out loud. "You really miss him that much, huh?"

"Yeah. I do."

* * *

**A/N: Some comic relief for everyone there. Hopefully I can have chapter 8 up by tomorrow night. Thanks again to everyone who reviewed!**

**Cheers,**

**Lord Bear**

_Hiru Banshō no Jutsu_- Leech all Creation Technique

_Doton: Shinjū Zanshu no Jutsu _- Earth Release: Inner Decapitation Technique

_Kanashibari no Jutsu_ - Temporary Paralysis Technique

_Tori_ – Bird


	8. Danzo

**A/N: Chapter 8 up! This one was a bit tricky to write, and i had to come up with a lot of the plot on the spot. Almost everything from here on is planned though! I'm returning to school tomorrow, and exams are coming up, so I'll probably take a couple of days longer to upload each chapter. I won't stop though! Please keep reviewing, i love the feedback im getting!**

* * *

Naruto sighed and placed the scroll back on his desk. It had been almost a month since his trip to Oto, and he still hadn't made any progress deciphering the ANBU tattoo he believed was disguising a seal of some description. He'd been over and over the sealing lessons Jiraiya had mapped out for him, but nothing looked even remotely similar.

He ran a hand through his blond hair as he walked down the street, tossing up between heading to the onsen for relaxation after a long day of training, or the shogi parlour for a round or two. He'd moved up in the ranks since he got there, regularly beating Rokuro easily. According to the top players in the village (who still defeated him with ease), he was likely a 6-dan ranked player now. Nobody could say he'd gotten any stupider since he'd left Konoha.

He let his feet lead him the rest of the way, and found himself outside the local onsen. 'Looks like my subconscious wanted a bath' he thought to himself, shrugging and heading towards it. At the divided entrance separating the male and female bath areas, he almost ran straight into Azami, who had walked out of the female side. She was wearing a medium-length sunflower yellow skirt, and a white shirt. Her hair was still wet and hung limply over her shoulders.

"Naruto-kun! I've barely seen you for three days! Where have you been?" she lectured sternly, bending forward at the hips with one hand on her waist and the other pointed at him. The pout on her face gave her away.

Naruto placed his thumb and index finger on opposite sides of his jaw in an exaggerated thinking pose. "Oh…here and there, I guess."

He had decided to turn it into a game to save himself from the white-haired nightmare's interrogation. If she thought he was withholding information as a game, she wouldn't get frustrated and demand she be told.

Azami rolled her eyes and jumped at him, enveloping him in a hug before planting a kiss on his cheek. "You always say that, Naruto-kun!" she complained, rolling her eyes again for added effect.

He chuckled and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, before returning the kiss on her cheek. "I guess I do, don't I?"

"Hey I'm starting to get a bit hungry, wanna go grab some ramen?"

Naruto sighed. "Actually, I was just about to take a bath."

Azami bounced around on the balls of her feet. "Please please please!" She gave him her best puppy-dog eyes.

He glared at her, a hint of humour in his gaze. "You've used that one too many times on me, I've developed a natural immunity to it!"

She was shocked. A male had developed an immunity to the puppy-dog eyes? Impossible.

"I guess I could wait out here for you? Will you be long?"

Naruto's eyes widened. "You'd do that? Great! I'll be about fifteen minutes."

Azami smiled warmly and nodded. You can leave your wallet, keys and all that with me so nobody steals them, if you'd like.

"That'd be awesome!" He began sifting through his pockets and pulled out some loose change, his keys, his Gama-chan wallet, and before he thought any better, the book Jiraiya gave him.

She giggled when he pulled out Gama-chan; she'd always found his favourite coin pouch hilariously cute. When he handed over the orange book, she raised an eyebrow.

"Icha Icha paradise?"

Naruto froze. Surely he didn't…_'Oh Shit.'_

"Well…you see…it's like this…" he began, holding his hands up in front of him in a placating gesture. "It's just…I was…please don't kill me." he pleaded desperately, now kneeling with his forehead and hands on the ground hoping the young woman in front of him wouldn't kill him.

A few moments later he still hadn't received an answer, so he looked up in confusion to find the white-headed girl…giggling with her head stuck in the book, a heavy blush on her face. Naruto's mouth fell open in shock.

"You…you read Icha Icha?" he finally got out, still in a state of disbelief.

Azami looked over the top of the book and winked at him, before returning to the pages.

"So which one's your favourite, Naruto-kun?" she asked, turning the page and giggling.

He open and shut his mouth a few times in shock, trying to process what he'd seen. "I don't know, really. What's yours?"

"Icha Icha Vacations." She replied instantly, with hearts in her eyes.

Naruto almost fainted. She'd read Icha Icha paradise. She'd read Icha Icha Vacations. She'd read his book! His book! He couldn't believe she preferred his book to Jiraiya's. If she ever found out he wrote it, she'd kill him. Then again, maybe instead she would…_'Bad Naruto!' _he mentally slapped himself.

Seeing her still immersed in the book, he rolled his eyes and headed into the empty onsen, stripping and settling into the warm water. He wasn't worried about her having the book, it would only react to himself, Jiraiya or Tsunade, so even on the off chance she could use chakra, she wouldn't be able to see anything in it.

They hadn't talked about dating at all yet. They'd agreed to go to the festival together in a week's time, but neither was he quite sure what to call her. Were they friends? Boyfriend and girlfriend? They certainly acted like they were. Their regular greeting had become a casual hug and kiss on the cheek, and neither had any problems holding the other's hand as they walked around. _'I guess you could say we are.'_ He thought to himself. Just as he was about to stand up and leave he was interrupted by a horribly familiar giggling.

'_What the hell? Why would Ero-sennin be back here? And why is he on the __male__ side?'_ he thought in alarm. Would he be seeing Icha Icha Mantopia being released sometime soon?

Cautiously he looked to the tree overlooking the onsen and his eyes bugged out.

Azami was lying on her stomach on the tree branch, feet kicking over her back and a pair of binoculars in front of her eyes. She was giggling madly and had a massive red blush on her face.

'_Is she Ero-sennin's daughter or something?!'_

"Azami-chan?!" he yelled incredulously. "What the hell are you doing?!"

She removed the binoculars from her eyes and poked her tongue out at him. "Watching you, silly!"

If he hadn't been waist deep in hot water he would have facefaulted. "And what makes you think you can spy on me?!"

She launched herself off the tree and landed on the ground a few feet behind him and to his left. "Can't a girl look at her boyfriend every once in a while?" she asked innocently, a pout on her face.

'_So she __does__ think she's my girlfriend.'_ Naruto thought to himself, smiling _'I could get used to this.'_

He finally remembered the situation he was in and groaned. "Not when I'm like this, Azami-chan!"

"Like what?"

"When I'm nak-" He cut himself off, looking over at the girl behind him and blushing as he heard her begin giggling uncontrollably. He turned away from her, shutting his eyes and placing his hands behind his head.

"Can I join you, Naruto-kun?" she asked innocently.

Naruto sat up perfectly straight in shock, eyes almost popping out of their sockets. He looked at her incredulously. "What?! You can't anyway! This is the men's side! You're not even supposed to be in here!"

Azami giggled and began to pull her shirt over her head, exposing a lavender bra underneath, and threw it to the side. Naruto quickly snapped his head to face the opposite direction, attempting to focus all his attention on a speck of dust on the opposite wall of the onsen. He desperately tried to avoid listening to the sound of her removing her clothes, but despite the number of times he sung the 'Ode to Ramen' he had made up on the spot, he couldn't help himself.

A few moments later he heard a splash to his left, and turned slowly to find Azami a foot away from him and submersed up to her neck in the water. She giggled and jumped on him, giving him a kiss on the cheek.

"Its underage mixed bathing between four and five on Saturdays. They separated the age groups to make people more comfortable with it. There's barely anyone else who's our age in the village, so nobody will come in." She told him, leaning her head on his shoulder and closing her eyes.

Naruto smiled, despite the shock he was feeling, and put his arms back behind his head. "I don't mind this at all." He shut his eyes and leaned back on the palms of his hands.

"Mmm…" she replied "Me neither."

* * *

Tsunade examined the ten chuunin in front of her.

"Alright you lot, we've got a few changes in the teams to go through." She began. "Team Kurenai will be the only team to remain in circulation as a purely tracking force. You will often be called in to work with the hunter-nin squads, but it is unlikely you will be allowed to participate in battles in these situations."

All three nodded and stood up a bit straighter at the mention that they would be working with the hunter-nin on occasions.

"As you all know, Team Kakashi is no longer a complete team which is mission-ready, due to Sasuke's desertion and Naruto-kun's training trip. I have waited a year to remedy this, as I had decided to take Sakura-chan under my wing. She has been training and working in the hospital full time so I saw no need to give her missions until now."

Everyone's moods slightly dampened at the mention of Sasuke, but she continued on regardless.

"Team Kakashi, Team Asuma and Team Guy will henceforth be disbanded."

A few gasps came from the group, and one mutter of 'Troublesome.'

"Neji-san. You will receive a jounin promotion and will be complete your training in the Jyuuken, before beginning to take on missions."

She handed him the standard Konoha jounin flak jacket and he smirked. Not the arrogant smirk he wore during the chuunin exams, but one that showed he was proud of his achievements. He bowed and stepped back with his friends.

"Sakura-chan. You too will receive a jounin promotion and will now operate as team leader of the new Team Sakura."

Tsunade handed Sakura a flak jacket, who blushed and rolled her eyes slightly. A few snickers broke out around the room.

"You just did that because you're my sensei, didn't you?" she asked, slightly hurt

Tsunade chuckled. "Actually, it wasn't my idea, it was Kakashi-kun's."

The snickers immediately stopped, and Sakura grew wide eyed, meeting Kakashi's eye, who gave her a slight nod. Sakura smiled and bowed, before stepping backwards"

"Shikamaru-san. You will also receive a jounin promotion and will be given the position of Chief Strategist."

She handed him a flak jacket as she did with Neji. He accepted it, but looked up with a puzzled expression.

"Hokage-sama?" he began

"Yes, Shikamaru-san?"

"Wasn't my father Chief Strategist? Nothing has happened to him, has it?" he asked, a slightly panicked look crossing his features. He hadn't seen his father for a few weeks, having just come back from a mission himself – filling in as Suna delegate for an injured chuunin.

"No, no, of course not. The old Ino-Shika-Cho trio has reformed due to the pressure from Oto and Kumo. Your father will be taking his place in that squad, as will yours, Ino."

Shikamaru looked relieved and stepped backwards, while Chouji looked up with an equally panicked expression. Tsunade cut him off before could speak.

"Relax, Chouji-san, your father isn't dead either."

He visibly relaxed at this. "Then why didn't you say he was returning to the team?"

The Hokage smirked. "Because Chouza-san has been hampered recently with more than a little arthritis in his bones. He has said he will be in reserve if the village is attacked, but he can't complete any missions in the meantime. You will be taking his place."

Chouji was shocked. The Ino-Shika-Cho trio was legendary all over the elemental nations. Since he'd been a child he had dreamed he was a part of the group, completing missions with his father's friends. This was a dream come true for him.

"Hai, Hokage-sama. I'll make him proud."

He stepped back with a giddy smile on his face, his gaze focussed on nothing in particular over her shoulder.

Tsunade smiled. She'd been looking forward to giving Chouji that news all day; he certainly deserved it.

"Tenten-san. Hideo of the Sand has specifically contacted me with a request to train you for eighteen months. Will you accept this offer?"

Tenten's jaw dropped open. Hideo was one of the best swordsmen alive; on par with the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. _'He wants to train __me__?'_ She nodded slowly, still not fully sure she could believe she wasn't dreaming. Lee sensed this and pinched her.

"Lee!" she screamed indignantly.

"My apologies, Tenten-san. You appeared to be unsure if this was real, so I gave you a youthful pinch to prove it was! That is what Gai-sensei would do if he were here!" He declared, giving her the 'nice guy' pose.

Sakura and Ino sighed. Every time they thought they were getting somewhere with him, he'd go and say something like that.

"Ino-san. You will fill one of the remaining slots in Team Sakura. Asuma-san will no longer be available for training, due to other commitments; however you may still participate in my training with Sakura when it is appropriate. When it is not, I have spoken to Kurenai-san, and she has agreed to allow you to participate in her team's training when they are not on missions."

Ino nodded.

"Lee-san. The fight I organised between you and Gai-san last week was to test your eligibility for jounin status. You performed remarkably well and so I am proud to award you this flak jacket."

He stepped forward and she handed him the flak jacket, his eyes watering with joy. He shouted something so loud about the 'power of youth' that nobody understood it, before stepping back into place.

"You also will be the final member of the new Team Sakura," she told him, before addressing everyone. "Are there any questions?"

Sakura slowly raised her hand.

"Sakura-chan?"

"Tsunade-shishou…what will happen when Naruto gets back?" she asked quietly.

Tsunade paused to think for a moment. "Well…that would depend on how good he is at the time. Most likely he will be given the mission to eliminate the Akatsuki."

Everyone save for Shino, Shikamaru and Neji gasped at this.

"But Tsunade-sama, how could Naruto eliminate so many powerful missing-nin? Why wouldn't you give the ANBU this mission and not just Naruto?" Ino quickly replied.

"I will give him a team to lead in the mission of course. It would be suicide to fight Akatsuki alone."

"It would be suicide to fight Akatsuki _anyway!_' Ino screamed at her.

Tsunade inwardly sighed. She thought so too, but knew Naruto wouldn't rest until he had. She didn't want to discipline Ino, since she knew she was just worried about her friend, but she had to stop her before she got really out of line.

"That's enough, Ino! Look, if you really want to help Naruto, train hard for the next two years while he's still away. If your team is strong enough by then, I will allow you to be the team he takes with him to fight Akatsuki."

It was a tough call to make, but she could always tell them they weren't strong enough if they wouldn't be able to face off against an Akatsuki member.

Ino looked like she was about to say something, but she shut her mouth and nodded resolutely, hands clenched into fists at her side.

"Any other questions?" Tsunade asked, surveying the group.

Nobody responded.

"Very well, you're all dismissed. Except for you, Ino."

They began to file out, some sending sympathetic looks towards a worried Ino, who remained standing where she was. Once they were the only two left in the room, Tsunade turned to her.

"Ino, I have a very important mission to give you." She stated.

Ino was shocked. She thought she was going to receive some sort of punishment for insubordination. She was expecting a demotion or pay cut, even though she knew Tsunade was too kind to give her one.

"What sort of mission, Tsunade-sama?" she asked. Hopefully it was something interesting.

"An S-ranked mission." Tsunade replied.

Ino's eyes grew wide in response. "An S…S-ranked m-m-mission?" she stuttered.

"Hai. Your father is still a week away from Konoha and it is imperative that this mission be completed by a Yamanaka immediately. This mission could potentially get you into a lot of trouble with the village, but I will do my best to avoid you being prosecuted if it comes to that. For this reason I will give you a chance to back out, although I must remind you how important this is." The Hokage told her, he tone business-like now and her eyes hard.

Ino gulped. "Hai. I will take the mission, Hokage-sama."

Tsunade breathed a barely noticeable sigh of relief. "Very well, this mission _must_ be conducted undercover. If you are caught, it could have serious repercussions to the village."

Ino nodded. "What is the objective?"

"Your target is Danzo. I believe he is planning to assassinate me and launch a coup d'état." She replied, sliding a photograph and a set of blueprints across the table. "Danzo operates his own branch of ANBU named 'Ne' or 'Root,' despite the Sandaime outlawing its existence. Your objective is to infiltrate root headquarters and use your family techniques to prove or disprove the existence of this plot. You will report back to me with your discoveries."

The blonde chuunin stared wide-eyed at her Hokage. She had just been asked to infiltrate the mind of one of the most politically-powerful shinobi in Konoha.

Tsunade reached under her desk and pulled out an ANBU uniform. "You will wear ANBU gear, as this is a completely black operation. You will not be given the Konoha ANBU tattoo, so it can be argued that you were likely from another village if you are seen. This mission must be completed tonight, as I fear his plans may have been accelerated by the likelihood that Oto and Kumo may take two or three years to reconstruct their invasion."

She nodded and took the black outfit from Tsunade; with it a set of ANBU armour and a rabbit mask. She walked to the door and stopped before exiting.

"Hai, Tsunade-sama, I will complete the mission at once."

* * *

Naruto slammed his fist in the ground. _'It still isn't good enough.'_

With his notes, Kakashi had left him instructions on completing the Yondaime's _Rasengan_ by adding his elemental affinity to it. Wind was just too powerful to control though. He'd started the project eagerly four months ago, and had managed to incorporate the volatile nature of the _futon_ element into the ball, but not to the extent he had hoped.

For starters he had to use five shadow clones. He had become accustomed to creating the _Rasengan_ by himself, so no way was he planning to go back to the stage where he had to rely on a shadow clone to form his attack at all. He wanted to get this down perfectly before he used it.

The key issue, however, was that every time a set of clones used his new destructive technique – he hadn't tried anything past forming it himself – they would invariably be shredded to pieces. That's never a good sign when it could have been you.

The information he got from the destroyed clones told him that the arm was the first thing to go. His clones didn't have real bodies, so as soon as one part of them was destroyed they would disappear. Fortunately it didn't seem like a very large backlash, so he hoped to be able to find a way around it.

"**Futon: Rasenshuriken!"**

He absently watched his clones face certain destruction once again, rolling his eyes. _'At least I came up with a decent name for it.'_ Kakashi had no faith in his ability to name attacks, and he very clearly stated that if he just called it the 'Naruto _Rasengan_' or something to that effect, he would hang him from the Nidaime's chin for a week. He supposed Kakashi had a point. He _did_ name one of his attacks the 'Uzumaki Naruto Combo,' after all.

He lifted himself up from his position sitting on a rock. What he needed was a way to shield his arm. If it were a fire _Rasengan_, he would be able to shield it for a few second by coating his arm with a thick layer of water before it burnt him. Unfortunately, wind's natural weakness was fire. And if he coated his arm in fire…

Well he'd burn his arm off. Not to mention blow himself up completely.

Evidently, this kind of thinking wasn't getting him anywhere.

A few minutes later a light bulb went off in his head. He called a number of clones over to him and had them prepare the _Rasenshuriken_. Once it was almost completed, he formed a barrier of wind from the palm of his hand, which extended to cover his forearm in a cone shape. He put slightly more power into the attack, unsettling it and causing it to explode in his hand.

Naruto blinked and checked his hand. It was perfectly fine. It had taken almost twice as much chakra, and was only three quarters as powerful as the original, but on the positive side of things, his arm was very much still there. There was one problem though…

He couldn't _believe_ he'd _deliberately_ blown it up on himself first! Why not a clone? _'I'll have to add this to the list of __unbelievably stupid things I do which somehow turn out alright__.'_ And he had one too. A very long list of luck stories he used to motivate himself.

By his estimations, the _Rasenshuriken_ was about two thirds completed. Originally he would have liked it to be mobile, so he could throw it at enemies from a distance, but it wasn't self-sustaining, so he'd never get it working that way. He'd at least developed a way to use it without mutilating himself, so that was definitely a plus. Unfortunately it had taken six people and a great deal more chakra and concentration, to create something that wasn't as powerful as it should have been.

This meant that he had two choices from here. His first option was to create the _Rasenshuriken_ for himself to use. This would mean he trained it to be made by himself, with more chakra and more power.

The other option was to create the _Rasenshuriken_ to be used as an attack with his shadow clones. If he did this, he could afford to leave off the cone of wind and concentrate on pumping as much power in as possible. Still, being made by a single shadow clone would mean that it had less power than if he made it himself, but more of them could be used and they would be expendable. It would still be strong enough to kill most opponents A-class or below, it just wouldn't be the 'be all end all' of ninjutsu attacks.

At the moment the second alternative was looking better. The _Rasenshuriken_ took a great deal of concentration and time to form, and it would be difficult to hit his opponent with one. He knew for sure that if he saw someone creating a behemoth like that twenty feet away, he would throw a fire jutsu at them and they'd be blown to smithereens. No, it was far too dangerous to remain stationery and vulnerable for so long. Plus, this way he would have an entire army of Kamikaze bombers, provided he could sacrifice enough chakra.

'_Oh yes, people will respect my art, un.'_

* * *

Naruto sat cross-legged on his bed at night, a bowl of steaming ramen in his lap, as he slowly read over his training plans. The ragged pages had taken a great deal of damage over the year, words scratched out, ticks and crosses next to tasks he completed or decided against, and additions scrawled all over the margins.

So many things had changed since his original basic plan. The _Rasenshuriken_ was one, another was _Doton _jutsu. It turned out he didn't have nearly the difficulty learning them as he thought he did. Most of his infiltration skills were earth techniques; most notably the_ Dochū Eigyo,_ _Shinjū Zanshu_ and_ Iwagakure_.

He put away his training equipment and changed into a pair of tracksuit pants and a shirt, sitting down at the edge of his bed and looking at the little orange book in his hand that his girlfriend admired so much. _'It couldn't hurt, could it?'_ he told himself, mentally debating whether or not to read it. _'I suppose if Azami-chan likes them, it can't be that bad to be reading them?'_ he figured. _'Ah what the hell, I damn well wrote one. I have every right to be reading them.'_ With that he opened the book and began to read

Twenty minutes later he was lying on his stomach across the bed, still reading his new favourite book. The best source of ninja information in the elemental countries _and_ Icha Icha paradise to boot! He'd have to take Jiraiya out for a meal when he got back. And Iruka too, he'd almost forgotten his decision to shout him.

Towards the middle of the book it started to have more and more pictures, and Naruto's face got redder and redder. _'Did he add those to my book?'_ he wondered, though not quite sure which he would prefer. One of the women in a picture had a diamond on her forehead which made her look suspiciously like Tsunade.

'_Wait a minute…'_ he took a closer look at the shape. _'That's not a diamond…that's a seal!'_

FLASHBACK

_Gaki,_

_As an extra…incentive…to learn the wonderful branch of sealing, I've hidden a few…surprises, throughout this book. Most of them are rewards at the end of the lessons, but not all of them._

_Good luck, kid._

_Jiraiya_

END FLASHBACK

Naruto was almost giddy with anticipation, and spent the next fifteen minutes trying to release the seal, which was far more complicated than the others he'd seen. '_Must have been the Yondaime's work'_ he mused. When the seal finally released a small scroll, he unrolled it and read the title in a hoarse whisper, his eyes bulging out of his head in shock.

"Hi…Hi…Hiraishin?"

* * *

**A/N: Yes, Hiraishin. I have specific plans for it though, so dont expect him to run around slicing up every Akatsuki member using it; that wont happen. Neither will it happen with the Rasenshuriken. Chapter 9 should be out by Wednesday at the latest. Keep reviewing!**

_Doton: Dochū Eigyo_ – Underground Projection Fish

_Doton: Shinjū Zanshu_ – Inner Decapitation

_Doton: Iwagakure _– Hidden Amongst Rocks

_Hiraishin_ – Flying Thunder God


	9. Root

**A/N: Hmm...Guess i was a bit earlier than I anticipated with this release. In this story i have taken the Henge to be a basic technique, which can be adapted on by skilled ninja (such as Tsunade with her permanent henge, and Naruto with his Orioke no Jutsu). Please keep reviewing! Enjoy!**

* * *

Ino left the Hokage tower after wrapping her new ANBU gear up into a bag Shizune had handed her on the way out. Just as well, too, as she was met outside by Sakura and Lee, who had evidently waited for her to talk to Tsunade.

"Hey Ino! Was it bad?" Sakura asked.

Ino raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"She chewed you out, right? Don't tell me you've forgotten already, you just came out!"

'_Oh yeah, everyone thinks I was being disciplined. Well, better they think that than know about my mission.'_

She gave a half-hearted laugh. "Sure. She was pretty angry."

"Ino-san! You should not be so unyouthful in the presence of our Hokage!"

They both shared a glance behind Lee's back, and Sakura rolled her eyes. Ino kicked a stone along the road as they began to walk. Sakura raised an eyebrow as her best friend slung the messenger bag over her shoulder.

"What's in the bag, Ino? I didn't see you with it when you went in"

The blonde girl began to panic. _'I can't show her the gear and I can't tell her I already had it. She's the Hokage's apprentice so she'll demand to know. I guess I'll let Hokage-sama deal with this.'_

"Sorry forehead, its classified," she finally replied, sticking her tongue out at Sakura.

Sakura, for her part, was incensed with Ino's use of the long-standing insult, and it showed. Her hands clenched into fists and her face went red with anger, as she stepped forward to deliver a chakra-enhanced punch...

...And hit poor Lee, who had stepped between the two in hopes of 'Reigniting their youthful passions in a peaceful manner.' He was sent flying into a stall on the side of the road.

"Hey! Watch where you're throwing him!" came the aggravated voice of an elderly chef, who's stall had evidently been disrupted.

"We're sorry, we were just-" Ino began, before she was cut off by the chef.

"Sakura-san! It's been months since I've seen you! Come in and have a meal! Your friends too!" he rambled in a cheery manner, completely forgetting his frustrations. "Don't worry about it green kid, you didn't break anything."

The pink-haired medic-nin smiled. She hadn't been to Ichiraku with anyone but Shizune for a year; quite the change from her days in Team 7 with Naruto wanting them to eat there every meal.

"Sure, why not?"

"So, any word on Naruto-kun?" he asked once they were seated.

Sakura shook her head. "We haven't heard from him. He doesn't get back for just under two years anyway, so we probably won't until then."

Teuchi started chopping ingredients, and Ayame looked up from the magazine she was reading. "He's with that old guy with the white hair, isn't he?" she asked.

Ino and Sakura both grew ticks on their foreheads.

"No," Sakura replied. "He left him in the middle of nowhere almost a full year ago."

Ayame gasped. "What do you mean _he left him in the middle of nowhere?!"_ she ground out.

"That's what I said!" both girls shouted, as Lee pulled himself off the ground clutching his shoulder. _'Sakura-chan's punches really hurt!'_

That was the end of the conversation as far as Ino was concerned, as she tuned out to think about her upcoming mission. _'How am I going to break into an ANBU base? Not to mention into Danzo's mind. What if he had a defence to it? What if I was captured before I can make it to him?'_ There were so many variables and so many possible ways for it to go wrong.

She forced herself to calm down, letting her emotions run wild for an S-Ranked mission practically guaranteed death. What she needed was a rock solid plan to get inside. She thought back to the blueprints Tsunade had given her. Or more specifically, the notes on the back of the blueprints. The Hokage had given her a few snippets of information which would help her impersonate a root ANBU, should she decide to go with that method. She pictured the page in her head.

'No root members carry identification.' This was definitely good for her, as she wouldn't need to be checked on her way in. If they did, she would need to draw up a set of false documents, which would either get her discovered through not faking them well enough, or not faking someone who was a member of the root force.

'All members of root refer to Danzo as _Danzo-sama._' This was simple enough to remember, and she was slightly surprised Tsunade saw fit to include it on the sheet. It was pretty likely that an organisation run by someone like that would be ordered to refer to him with the –sama suffix. She supposed the Hokage simply didn't want to take any chances with Ino not thinking it necessary or not thinking of it at all.

'Danzo does not keep a full root unit around him for protection. He believes their numbers are better used elsewhere.' Another bonus for Ino. Evidently, Danzo believed he could protect himself, and if there were no others in the room for added security, nobody would be able to damage her body while she was outside it.

'All root members are male.' Ino's mind ground to a halt. Her plan up until this point was based around a _henge_. The downside to her _Henge_ was that it wouldn't change her voice, only her appearance. It took mastery over the technique to adapt it, something she believed Tsunade had. She suspected that her young appearance was probably a combination of a _Henge_ and a Genjutsu.

'_Who do I know who could teach me how to change my voice in a Henge?'_ she thought, nodding a few times in answer to general small talk from Teuchi and Ayame. _'The only time I remember anyone ever changing their voice in a henge was…'_

"Sakura, do you know where Konohamaru would be?"

The girl next to her raised an eyebrow. "Konohamaru? Bit young for you, isn't he, Ino?" she asked with a cheeky grin.

Ino rolled her eyes and clocked Sakura on the head. "Just tell me where he is, forehead!"

"Fine, fine. His team usually train on training ground seventeen. I still don't know why you want to talk to him…" she trailed off. Ino had already left.

Sakura ran outside the store screaming with fury. "Get back here, Ino-pig! You didn't pay!"

* * *

Ino found Konohamaru and his team exactly where Sakura said they would be. They were in the middle of training, so she figured she'd wait around and watch before she interrupted them. Moegi and Udon were sparring in taijutsu, while Konohamaru was being instructed in ninjutsu by Ebisu. Moegi and Udon were becoming quite good ninja, but it was Konohamaru who held her interest at the current time. More specifically, what he was learning.

"Hey Konohamaru-san, what's that you're practicing?" She shouted out, walking out onto the field waving.

"Ino-san!" The three chorused, and a formal "Ino-san" was received from Ebisu.

"Ebisu-sensei is teaching me the _Kage Bunshin!_ Now I can be like Naruto-niisan!" he declared, a beaming smile plastered on his face.

"_Kage Bunshin_, eh?" she asked, a smile forming on her lips, and a plan rapidly falling into place in her head. "Say, Ebisu-san…would I be able to learn it too?" she asked with her best puppy-dog eyes.

"Well…" he began uncomfortably "The _Kage Bunshin_ is an A-ranked restricted technique, Konohamaru had to get specific permission from Hokage-sama to learn it."

Ino's eyes widened slightly. "I never knew it was a forbidden technique. How did Naruto-kun learn it then?" She had no idea how someone who managed to fail the gennin test three times in a row would get clearance to learn an A-rank forbidden jutsu.

Ebisu began to sweat a little at this, and rubbed the back of his neck. "Well…you see…he-"

Konohamaru cut him off almost immediately, grinning wildly. "Nii-san broke into the Hokage tower and stole the forbidden scroll!"

"NANI?!" she shouted, eyes almost bursting out of her head. "Don't be stupid, Konohamaru! Something like that is enough to be executed! There's no way he did that!"

"Well…" Ebisu began once again. "He kind of…did."

Ino's jaw fell open. A few seconds later she responded slowly. "So you're telling me, Naruto – Uzumaki Naruto, the kid who failed the academy final exam three times – managed to steal the forbidden scroll from the Hokage, learn an A-rank kinjutsu before he was caught, and not be executed for it?"

The four ninja in front of her nodded.

"How did he get away with that?" she asked in disbelief.

Konohamaru grinned. "Here, let me show you."

"_**Orioke no Jutsu!"**_

In his place now stood a tall brunette with long wavy hair. Her eyes were a dark brown, and she was completely naked, without even any clouds covering her.

"Konohamaru! Where are the damn clouds?!" an irate Moegi screamed at him, punching him in the face and causing his technique to dispel.

"Yeah yeah whatever, Naruto-niisan is going to love this!" he declared, before turning back to Ino. "He beat Ojiisan with the _Oroike no Jutsu!'_

Ino had to laugh at this. "Alright, even if that _did_ happen, how come he wasn't punished?"

Konohamaru's eyes narrowed at the suggestion that his 'Niisan' didn't do what he had just said. "Mizuki-teme."

"Mizuki-sensei? What does he have to do with it? Come to think about it, what happened to him anyway? He just disappeared one day and I haven't seen him since."

Konohamaru scowled. "Mizuki-_teme_ tricked Niisan into stealing the scroll! He was going to give it to Orochimaru! He tried to kill Niisan but Iruka-sensei took the hit!" he shouted, face turning red with anger.

"He hurt Iruka-sensei?" she asked in disbelief.

Konohamaru's furious expression turned to a grin instantly. "Niisan beat him up though, and he was put in the prison. He got out again a while ago but Niisan and Iruka-sensei beat him up again!" he declared proudly.

'_I had no idea any of this even happened.'_ She mused, turning to Ebisu.

"Ebisu-san, would I be able to borrow Konohamaru-san for a few minutes? I have an important mission and I need his help in training."

The special jounin raised an eyebrow. "Why would you need Konohamaru-san of all people?"

Ino smirked. "Well the technique I need to learn is one of Naruto-kun's specialties…"

Ebisu sighed. "Fine, you can borrow him for a while. About _Kage Bunshin_ though…you'll need permission from Hokage-sama for that."

"Don't worry, it's really important that I learn it, I'll bring you a note from her tomorrow saying it was alright. If it wasn't, I'll take the blame, alright?"

Ebisu thought for a moment, and reached into his jacket. "Alright. Konohamaru-san has already learnt the theory for the technique, so you can borrow the scroll for a few days I guess."

She pocketed the scroll and thanked him. She nodded to Konohamaru and they walked across to the other side of the training ground.

"So what move do you need to learn, Ino-san? Rasengan? Kage Bunshin?" he asked eagerly.

Ino smirked.

"Orioke no Jutsu."

* * *

As the darkness began to set in, two figures disappeared from the streets into the underground root headquarters. They were greeted on the first level by another root member.

"Halt, state your code." One of the two figures asked, speaking in a gruff voice.

"Root-F," he replied, giving his unit code. All root members, according to Tsunade, were placed into squads identified with letters, ranging from A onwards.

"Very well, you may pass." The figure who spoke before affirmed.

The lone shinobi nodded and passed, as the other two smirked to themselves. What better way to avoid being questioned than to do the questioning yourselves?

The root headquarters was made up of a vast network of underground chambers and tunnels, with at least five levels. It was hell to navigate, and the two often had to duck into an alcove to check the blueprints. Danzo, as frustrating as it was, had managed to place his quarters on the fourth floor down. The two ANBU were on the second.

"Halt, where is your root tattoo?" a patrolling guard questioned them. One of the figures began to panic. _'Tsunade-sama never said anything about a tattoo…'_

Ino took a step backwards away from the root ANBU, who advanced on her slowly, his hand preparing to draw the ninjaken strapped to his back. Unfortunately for him, he never saw the second figure, still in the alcove, drawing a kunai.

**SQUELCH!**

Ino looked on in shock as her accomplice dragged the blade across the back of the ANBU's neck, causing him to pass out and collapse. _'J...jus...just killed a Konoha shinobi!'_ she told herself, and gasped quietly.

Once she regained motion, she moved forward to the fallen shinobi and put a hand to their neck, checking for a pulse. _'It's weak but it's still there. He should last a few more hours if I seal this wound.'_ She set to work for a few minutes as she passed her green glowing hands over the cut. It was risky, but she couldn't leave another Konoha shinobi to die, even if he was root.

Ten minutes later they had hidden the unconscious body in the same alcove, and proceeded down to Danzo's quarters. The halls were getting darker the lower down they went.

"Are you here to see Danzo-sama?" the solitary guard at the door asked emotionlessly.

"Hai. Root-A reporting in." Ino's partner replied in the same vacant tone all root members seemed to use.

Tsunade had told Ino that Root-A were supposed to return from a 'secret' mission tomorrow night, so she wouldn't be caught impersonating one of them. It was close enough to the expected date not to seem suspicious though, and Root-A were the best root squad there was, so neither of them would be questioned.

The guard nodded, betraying no surprise at the information. He opened the door and gestured towards the long hallway inside.

* * *

Ino's partner threw her to the floor in front of Danzo, holding a ninjaken to her neck.

"What have we here?" the warmonger asked, seemingly amused by the intrusion.

"A Kumogakure ANBU, caught attempting to infiltrate root headquarters." He stated, pressing the sword slightly closer to the bulky, rough neck of Ino's male form.

Danzo raised an eyebrow and examined Ino's shoulder, which showed a Kumogakure ANBU tattoo.

"I see. I am glad you brought this to my attent-" he cut himself off, noticing Ino's partner reach for a kunai.

"DIE!" her partner roared, leaping at the elder with a kunai drawn, which Danzo parried with his bandaged arm, a low metallic sound resonating from the wrappings.

"Treachery!" he ground out, drawing his own kunai with his left hand and slashing left with it, just barely being blocked by the ninja's own kunai.

Ino's accomplice lashed out with a high kick, which Danzo stepped away from, and immediately followed through with three hard punches and another to the chest, which the elderly shinobi merely absorbed with his chest, laughing.

"Ha! You'll have to do better than that!" he replied smugly, slashing out with his kunai and reversing the grip mid-swing, retracting his slash and expertly catching Ino's partner's Achilles tendon, cleanly slicing it in two.

Her partner disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

'_Shit, Kage Bunshin!'_

Ino looked up from her position on the ground, a feral grin on her face, and moving her fingers into the seal for her family techniques.

"_**Shintenshin no Jutsu."**_

Immediately, Ino found herself pulled out of her own body, and making her way into Danzo's. Not wanting to give him time to regain his mind, she began to filter through any memories that may have involved the plot Tsunade spoke of.

"_Raikage-sama, you summoned me?" asked the rough voice of Danzo_

"_Danzo-san, will your troops be prepared?"_

"_Hai, Raikage-sama, the root will be prepared when you make your move."_

_The Raikage nodded. "Very good Danzo-san, soon we will have what we want."_

The scene faded out and another one took its place

"_What is it you wish for?" a younger Raikage asked, looking out over what Ino assumed was Kumogakure._

"_I wish for a strong Konohagakure. Once which is not afraid to fight and take control. One which does not fear war. A warrior nation."_

"_I can give you what you wish" the Raikage replied, not turning to face Danzo._

_Danzo smirked. "Then I will give you what you wish."_

_This time, the Raikage looked over at him. "And what do I wish for, Danzo-san?"_

"_You wish for war. There is no use for a shinobi nation if it does not see battle." He replied._

"_Right you are, right you are. Indeed, shinobi villages are designed for war. It is why we no longer have as much use for wandering clans as we did back in the time of Uchiha and Senju."_

_Danzo smirked, and raised a glass to the Raikage, who imitated the action. "To the new world."_

"_To the new world."_

The scene dissolved once more, to be replaced by a final conversation.

_The surroundings were pitch black, and the only sounds which could be heard were the speech of a deep-voiced male and the dripping of water on steel._

"_Danzo-sama, will we proceed with the plan."_

"_See that you do. Within a week, Tsunade will be dead, and I will be Rokudaime. And then…there will be a new Konoha."_

"_Hai, Danzo-sama, I will notify the root."_

_Footsteps could be heard departing from the area, and Danzo let out a short chuckle._

"_For Konoha."_

Ino gasped, still in Danzo's body. Tsunade had been right. There was a coup planned. _'What do I do with Danzo though? He should be killed, but he is a high profile Konoha shinobi, I could be risking everything if I assassinated him without orders.'_ she thought, but a small voice in her head cut in. _'You could never get another opportunity like this again. Tsunade could be dead tomorrow because you had the chance to finish him off and you didn't.'_

The blonde shook her head, it was too risky to kill him now. She created a shadow clone to gag him and returned to her own body, knocking him out straight away so he didn't have a chance to escape. After stuffing his body in a cupboard, she created another shadow clone. One she used the Orioke to transform into Danzo, and commanded to sit on the chair. The other she transformed into the form she used when she entered, before finally transforming herself into the image of the clone who accompanied her in.

She left the room and nodded to the guard standing at the end of the hallway.

"I have delivered the prisoner to Danzo-sama. He wishes to have no interruptions until he can finish interrogating him." She delivered in a monotone, before walking back the way she came, not even waiting for the guard to reply.

As she walked, she smirked to herself. _'Mission Complete. I have to inform Tsunade of this…'_

* * *

Naruto walked arm in arm with his date through the festival, stopping every now and then at a stall of some description when prompted to with a poke and a giggle from Azami. He wore a tailored black suit, with a white shirt and dark blue tie.

He heard another giggle come from his right, and looked to see her pointing at a couple across the road. The woman wore a long pink dress with silver shoes, and her hair was held up in a braid. She wore a pair of silver earrings and a gold chain around her neck. The man who's arm she was holding onto wore a black suit of similar style to Naruto's, which clashed horribly with his vibrant, pink hair.

"Rokuro-san!" he called, waving at his landlord.

The man turned a few times before spotting Naruto and heading over to him, guiding his date over with him.

"Oh hey Naruto, hey Azami, having a good night?" he enquired pleasantly.

"Very much" Azami responded politely, not knowing Rokuro as well as Naruto did from his frequent shogi games with him.

Naruto was standing slack-jawed as he recognised the woman on his arm.

"Hanae-chan?!"

Rokuro grinned, and Naruto's eyes widened.

"Ah…so _this_ was the date you were so excited about a while back, eh?" he mocked, elbowing him lightly in the chest.

Rokuro blushed, his face almost matching his hair, as Hanae grinned.

"Yes, yes it was." She replied, hugging his arm.

Azami had just realised who it was. "You've been holding out on us, Azami-chan!" she complained, fixing a pout onto her features.

Azami was wearing a long, deep green dress which contrasted vividly with her pure white hair, freefalling around her shoulders. She wore a pair of gold heels, and a red headband which matched the colour of her eyes. A silver pendant Naruto had bought her for her birthday hung around her neck.

Hanae laughed. "Well I wanted to surprise you both."

"You can say that again," Naruto muttered, causing the whole group to chuckle.

They walked and chatted with the couple for an hour or so, before deciding they needed to get something to eat. Takahashi's was obviously closed, with Hanae being out, but many merchants and chefs had entered the village to supply for the village. Naruto and Azami, of course, chose the closest ramen stand.

"Wow, I've never seen a ramen stand like this before," she commented, as they sat on either side of the two seater table. A waiter walked over and gave them each a menu, before lighting the large trident candle set in the centre of the table. He walked away and they both blushed, never having been on a formal date before.

Ten minutes later they had ordered, and Azami had pulled her chair around next to Naruto so she could lean her head on his shoulder and wrap her arms around his torso. A few couples around the room smiled at them warmly.

"The meals are here, Azami-chan." He told her, nudging her head off his shoulder and having her snap at his finger for his troubles.

"Hey now, no need to bite" he chuckled.

She lifted her head off his shoulder and they started their meals.

Naruto had decided to try and eat slowly for a formal date, as opposed to his regular speed. Unfortunately, he overcompensated, and Azami was done before he'd even got halfway.

"Come on Naruto-kun! You're slow!" she teased, before opening her mouth and giving him the puppy dog eyes.

He gave her a suspicious look. "What do you want _now_?"

She pouted and looked back and forth between his bowl of ramen and his eyes.

Naruto's eyes widened in shock. "Oh no you don't. You're not getting any of my ramen!"

"Please?"

"No"

"Please?"

"No!"

"Pleeeeeeaaasseeeeeeee?"

The blond shinobi grumbled and lifted his raman-loaded chopsticks to her mouth, which she instantly devoured, oblivious to the look of utter heartbreak in his eyes. She grinned at him and opened her mouth again.

"Oh no you don't! One was enough for you!"

"Please?"

He groaned again, but was crying on the inside. _'My precious ramen.'_

They left the restaurant almost an hour later. He stood on her right side and held her close to him, his left arm wrapped around her waist. They stopped to share a kiss before they left the festival.

He slept at her house that night.

* * *

**In a cave, Unknown location:**

Nine silhouettes stood in a circle, the only clearly distinguishable feature being the bright purple spirals in one of their eyes.

"Leader-sama. We have done as you have asked."

The one with the purple eyes looked across at him. "Good. Kakuzu, are your preparations in order?"

"Hai, Leader-sama. The right people have been…motivated."

His gaze trailed slowly across the room before it set on Kakuzu. "Very well."

He turned back to the centre of the room, and eyed another one of the figures. "Zetsu."

"Hai, Leader-sama?" came the scratch voice of one of the silhouettes.

"Seek out the nine-tails."

* * *

**A/N: Chapter 10 definately wont be out tomorrow, I have a major assessment to prepare for on Wednesday. Hopefully I will be able to get it out Wednesday night. Please keep reviewing and I'll try to keep updating ASAP!**

**Cheers,**

**Lord Bear**

Henge - Transform

Kage Bunshin - Shadow Clone

Orioke no Jutsu - Sexy Technique

Shintenshin no Jutsu - Mind Body Transfer Technique


	10. Father

**A/N: Hi! Sorry about the abominably long delay between chapters, I had to prepare for my assessment Tuesday night, and I was buggered beyond belief last night, so I only got a couple thousand words down. This is a chapter I have been preparing a while for (one of my first ideas), so I really hope it came out as well as it did in my head! Please review if you like or of even if you didnt! Enjoy!**

* * *

Naruto sat down on his bed and unsealed the _Hiraishin_ scroll from his book.

According to the notes, the _Hiraishin_ was a highly developed space/time technique with two key parts. The first part was the 'space' component; the actual transportation technique. There were two key seals in all. The seal on the kunai, and the seal on the user. In essence, both seals were powerfully attracted to each other, and when one was activated, it would take the object with the activated seal to the same position as its counterpart.

If the two objects were taken to be on two separate points in space, the technique would bend the space between them, pulling the positions at which the two objects are located to be at the same point. As the 'bending' is released, the activated object would cross between the two points, and end up at the other location.

Unfortunately, this would mean that if someone manages to come into possession of one of the kunai, they would be able to use the technique, simply by channelling chakra into it. This would have been very bad indeed for the Yondaime. The enemy would have been able to flash straight to him and kill him in a moment. To counter this, he appeared to have added a complex set of security techniques to his seal in the initial stages, and worked his way up from there. That way it would be almost impossible to re-create, as reverse engineering a seal was much harder than creating it in the first place.

From what Naruto could tell, the scroll appeared to be the scroll the Yondaime originally used to jot down his notes on the technique in an almost diary-like form. It detailed all the problems and complications in making the technique, as well as all the disadvantages.

One disadvantage would commonly be that it required the user to activate a seal to use, which meant that one hand would be busy. The Yondaime solved this problem by having the seal tattooed over a tenketsu in his chest, so he could channel chakra through it to activate it without physically touching anything. He had to have it placed under his skin, so it wouldn't be seen by anyone else. Apparently this hurt. Naruto was not looking forward to it.

The second part of the technique was the 'time' component. What was the use of getting to your opponent instantly, if you took time to regain your bearings and actually attack your enemy? To correct this, the Yondaime created a highly advanced seal to temporarily slow time to a crawl, and incorporated it into the _Hiraishin_. As the technique is activated, time slows, allowing the user to warp, kill, and reactivate the seal to appear elsewhere, at which time the time technique is re-activated.

The _Hiraishin_ took up a lot of chakra. Not an entirely huge amount by Naruto's standards, but still plenty. About as much as a _Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu._ The chakra consumption didn't vary based on how many times the jutsu was activated; it was based on how long the technique was activated for. If he used the technique once every hour for four hours, he would use more chakra than if he used it thirty times in a few seconds. The initial chakra boost to slow time was the main drainer, and if that could be quickly 'refuelled' between jumps, the jutsu would consume less.

One issue which was really confusing Naruto was how to ensure you ended up at the correct kunai. The scroll had a seal on the back which had released twelve Hiraishin kunai; eight in pristine condition and four which had been slightly worn. This meant that the Yondaime had made more than one at a time. He must have figured out how in his head though, because it wasn't clearly stated on the scroll. From what he could gather it was simply a focus thing; visualising the kunai you want to move to and executing the technique.

Technically, the jutsu had an infinite range. He could place one in Suna and flash straight there from his apartment in Sanjuka. More chakra was required, but the technique was still exactly the same. When he arrived at a seal and time slowed, the scroll estimated that the user would have what would feel like somewhere between five and ten seconds to engage the enemy before the time component disengaged. He evidently hadn't been able to test it fully as he had written this section.

Additionally, when the technique was engaged and the user had flashed to the destination, the kunai would appear in their hand, explaining why the seal could not be placed on a tree or building. Flashing into your house and having the wall fall down because it disappeared and reappeared in your hand would get expensive.

Apparently the 'yellow flash' part of the technique was actually a less significant component of it. The Yondaime had decided to incorporate a modified explosive tag to set off a brief flash of golden light as he 'flashed,' giving him his name. The practical reason was that it would disorientate and intimidate enemies, but he admitted on the scroll to simply creating it because it "looks cool".

Naruto sighed and rolled the scroll back up. That had been a lot of information to take in all at once. Still, he was sure he would be capable of the technique, and decided to have the tattoo work done as soon as possible. It wasn't an overly complicated technique to execute, the difficulty being almost entirely in the seals. He would have to do a decent amount of work to replicate the 'master seal' as the Yondaime had called it, but while it would be harder than anything he had done before, it was barely scratching the surface of the complexity in the complete seal.

As he turned the scroll around in his hands, his eyes caught a glimpse of a barely noticeable seal in the top right hand corner of the back of the scroll. He spun it around quickly in an attempt to find the seal again, and when he had found it, he was shocked to discover a blood seal.

'_Must have been set to the Yondaime'_ he mused. Shrugging to himself, he decided he might as well try it. For all he knew it could have been some other bizarre sort of seal the Yondaime had, for reasons unknown, decided to make look like a blood seal.

Pricking his finger and allowing a drop of blood to fall onto the seal, he was shocked when it emitted a barely noticeable white glow, and an envelope was released. Curiously, he picked up the letter and began to read it.

_Naruto,_

_If you're reading this, the sealing of the Kyuubi was successful. You probably despise me for what I had to do to you, but I'm afraid it was my only choice. As Hokage, I could never ask another man or woman to sacrifice their child when I was able to do so with my own._

_Yes Naruto, if you haven't been told already, I am your father. Your mother's name was Uzumaki Kushina, a shinobi from Whirlpool Country. Sadly, she died a few hours ago. I haven't had time to grieve, because I've been working on the seal for the Kyuubi, but I can understand how horrible it will be for you to grow up without either of your parents._

_You are now the last in a long, long line of Namikazes. A line which consisted of two people, you and me…or three if you count your mother; although she never took my name for safety. I would not have a clue who our ancestors were; maybe you will be able to find out someday, although I spent a good deal of time trying to discover it, I was able to get no closer to the answer. The name Namikaze was one I made up when I was six and growing up in the orphanage. We weren't given last names then so the transition wouldn't be too tough when we were adopted._

_I would love to have kept your status as a Jinchuuriki a secret, but unfortunately I have to ride atop Gamabunta to seal the Kyuubi. Too many people will see you, so I have asked Hiruzen to outlaw speaking of it. It's the least I can do._

_You've probably suffered a lot at the hands of the villagers. I truly am sorry for this. I hope you have found people who are precious to you, and can help you grow strong. Treasure them and keep them safe at all costs. Maybe you'll even want to be Hokage like me, eh?_

_I wish I would be able to meet you once you pass on; but unfortunately I'm going to be stuck in the Shinigami forever. Who knows, maybe one day you'll have to Shiki Fuujin a huge demon like I did and we can have scones and crumpets?_

_Actually, don't do that._

_I mean it._

_I've left everything I own to you, mostly sealed in this scroll. Unfortunately, that's pretty much only my cloak and the Hiraishin, thanks to the Kyuubi stomping all over my house. Please don't wear the cloak until you master Hiraishin and can defend yourself against my enemies, I could never forgive myself if you were killed because of my reputation. I wish I could have given you the family home, but it was completely lost. Hiruzen might be able to show you where it once stood._

_I'm sorry things had to turn out this way, son. Kushina and I were looking forward to having you so much; anyone who knew us could tell you that. Whatever you may have thought, please know we both loved you more than anything, and if there was another way to stop the Kyuubi, we would have gone to the ends of the Earth and back._

_All my love,_

_Namikaze Minato_

Naruto stared in shock at the letter. The Yondaime was his father. He was the son of his idol. Five years ago he would have been up in arms about nobody telling him, but now he could understand why. If he'd been told when he was a kid, he would have announced it to everyone he fought. _'I'd be dead within a week.'_ He mused.

It made sense, he supposed. Why the Fourth had chosen him. Why Jiraiya had taken such an interest in training him. Ero-sennin certainly wouldn't have trained _everyone_ who called him a pervert and interrupted his peeking. _'He'd have hundreds of thousands of female disciples everywhere,' _Naruto chuckled.

He couldn't possibly hold what the Yondaime did against him; he did it out of love for the village, and still did everything in his power to make Naruto's life more comfortable, during the limited time he'd had to prepare the seal.

Naruto smiled.

'_I'll become a shinobi you could be proud of…Dad'_

* * *

An ANBU with a rabbit masked entered through the window in the Hokage's office.

"Tsunade-sama. I have completed the mission."

Tsunade breathed a heavy sigh of relief. She'd been biting her nails all day in worry. She wasn't particularly close to Ino, but Sakura and Naruto were, so she especially didn't want anything to happen to her. Not to mention the political consequences if it came out that such a mission was ordered.

She gave Ino a smile. "Report."

"Danzo is indeed planning a coup d'état." She began.

Tsunade's eyes narrowed. _'So my suspicions were right. He will have to be eliminated then.'_

"Continue."

Ino nodded. "He has been engaged in deals with the Raikage for many years. The Raikage has pledged his aid to Danzo's goal of turning Konoha into a heavily militant village, which will invade at will. In return, Danzo has pledged his own support to the Raikage's goal of creating a war. Both believe that there is no use for a shinobi village without war."

Tsunade nodded. She had expected something similar. "What of his immediate plans?"

The girl furrowed her brow behind her mask. "One of his memories showed plans for assassinating you and ascending to Rokudaime 'within the week.' I wasn't able to get a fix on when the memory was from, though."

"I see. He will have to be taken care of then" Tsunade muttered, more to herself than to Ino.

Ino didn't respond.

Tsunade looked up to her and nodded her head. "Well done, Ino. You have performed extremely well, despite not being fully ready for an S-class mission. I will look into the possibility of finding you a place in the ANBU squads once you make jounin."

"T-thank you, Tsunade-sama" Ino stammered. Being told you were being considered for ANBU was a very high honour, as there were only usually a few dozen ANBU at any one time. And when you were just a chuunin too…

The Godaime smiled at the kunoichi. "You may leave the mask and uniform here. I will do my best to reserve it for you, should you one day join the ANBU corps."

"Hai, Tsunade-sama. I would like that."

Ino removed her mask.

"Congratulation again, Ino," she told her, a kind smile on her face. "Go and get some sleep while I sort this mess out."

Ino left the room with a nod, and Tsunade frowned intensely.

"Shizune?" she called into the hallway.

Her eldest apprentice opened the door a few seconds later, and stuck her head through the opening.

"Tsunade-sama?"

"Shizune, would you please bring me Hatake Kakashi."

* * *

"Deidara, are you on schedule?"

The blond missing-nin turned to look at the newcomer.

"What's it to you,_ Uchiha?_ He spat.

Itachi stared emotionlessly at him, before speaking.

"Leader-sama requests to know."

Deidara turned a curious glance towards his fellow Akatsuki member. _'Itachi has been acting suspiciously of late. What's he up to?'_

"There will be a meeting tonight" Itachi told him.

'_This is unusual; our leader almost never calls meetings.'_ "And why is there a meeting tonight, Itachi_-kun_?" he ground out, glaring at the Uchiha.

Itachi, for his part, seemed unfazed, and replied evenly. "We have a new member."

Deidara's eyes widened slightly. "Been recruiting, have we?" he asked with a bit of malice. "You wouldn't happen to have had anything to do with that, would you?"

"That is not your concern, Deidara."

"Fine. What is this _new member_'s name?" he replied, after a few seconds.

Itachi turned and began to walk away, and Deidara thought he was going to ignore his question, until he spoke.

"His name Is Tobi."

* * *

Naruto groaned as he jumped through the trees. Tattoos hurt. He was on his way back to Sanjuka, having just been to a town on the Waterfall Country border to have the inking done. There was no chance he was going to risk having the tattoo artist see the _Hiraishin_ seal, and he didn't want to have to kill him afterwards, so he had paid the owner of the salon to teach him to ink it onto himself. Thankfully, the particular man he went to was used to paranoid ninja wanting to ink storage seals and the like onto them self 'just in case.'

The process was painful. One of the most painful things that had ever happened to him; although the whole _Chidori_-through-the-lung thing was still easily ahead. He'd had to shave a large, shuriken-sized section of the skin from his chest off so he could ink it underneath, and forcibly hold back the Kyuubi from healing it. Six hours later he had finally completed the job, and used a jutsu the owner had taught him, for a price, to make it permanent; until death when his chakra system could no longer support it. Apparently some tattoo artists would unlock their chakra networks to provide this extra service.

That had been two days ago, and Naruto had stayed in one of the Village's hotels to recover. The bandage was removed that morning, and he had decided to set off for Sanjuka. At the present time he was barely four hours into his two and a half day journey, so he decided to stop for lunch.

It had been difficult to tell Azami he was leaving for over a week, fearing her wrath considerably. In the end he had decided to tell her the truth…somewhat. He had indeed admitted he was travelling to a village where he could have a tattoo done, although he'd said it was a neighbouring one. Travelling to Waterfall Country and back in a week was not feasible for a civilian.

Unfortunately, this meant that he'd have to get some other work done. If he came back empty-handed he'd be caught out. His first thought was to copy Gaara's 'love' kanji as a gag. But that would only really be funny once, and as far as he knew it couldn't be removed. Eventually he decided that he didn't want any sort of artwork; feeling that his shinobi gear was enough for his look.

Despite this, Naruto still got two pieces done. The first was two small storage seals on each forearm, on the opposite side to his black and gold bracers. They would at least be useful to have if he needed them one day. They were invisible to anyone but himself, the artist having asked him to push his chakra into the skin before the ink dried. These seals weren't planned, though; he wouldn't be able to show them to Azami when he got back. Instead, he decided to get rid of the thing he hated most about his appearance.

His whiskers.

Oh how he hated those whiskers. A constant reminder of his tenant. At least the seal was hidden under his clothes most of the time. He could almost understand the villager's fear of him being the Kyuubi when he had whiskers of all things. So he decided to get rid of them. And besides, whiskers aren't exactly stylish.

When he had taken off the bandages that morning and looked in the mirror, he could hardly believe he'd missed it. He looked almost exactly like his father. Same hair, same eyes, same facial features. _'Well…same facial features __now__,'_ he corrected; he didn't recall the Yondaime having whiskers.

_'I'm pretty sure I'll be able to use __Hiraishin now'_ Naruto mused, as he ate a cup of instant ramen he'd cooked with boiled water from the fire. Now that the seal had been placed on his body, it should be a simple matter of throwing the kunai and forcing some chakra into it.

He shrugged and began to pack up his gear, leaning with his shoulder against a tree for support. _'I'll try it out when I get back, I guess.'_ The storage seals were proving incredibly useful, being able to seal his whole pack in one. He didn't really want to carry Jiraiya's book incase it got lost or someone, however unlikely it may be, tried to steal it. That would be bad.

Just as he was about to set off, he noticed movement in the corner of his eye, and his shinobi senses went haywire. He rolled away from the tree as fast as he could; just in time to catch sight of a piece of fabric disappearing into the tree next to it.

'_Ahh…and here I thought it would take so long to find you.'_

He smirked, and activated the Hiru Banshō silently and without hand seals, sinking slowly into the ground below him.

Naruto had become proficient in sensing chakra signals, so he knew where Zetsu was hiding. He also knew that Zetsu would be able to utilise this skill much better than he could, so the Akatsuki member would be able to sense his location too. That didn't matter though.

Neither would be able to attack each other if they both stayed hidden, as it was impossible to destroy the object your enemy had become a part of, without exiting your own first. Technically, they could both occupy the same object too, so they wouldn't be able to attack each other while inside one.

He focussed his senses completely on Zetsu, and was able to make out, to a degree, what position he had taken inside the tree. Naruto moved through the ground and up into a tree on the opposite side of the clearing. Zetsu held a kunai in his hand, and his body was aligned directly towards Naruto the entire time. Clearly he was being tracked.

Naruto reached into his pocket and pulled out his own kunai, taking an aggressive stance. As the technique allowed you to move through objects, the user could easily position themself for exit. Zetsu mimicked him, taking his own offensive stance, and tensing his legs to leave the object. It was clear that there was only one option, so Naruto leaped directly at Zetsu, a snarl on his face.

**CLANG!**

Zetsu once again followed suit, meeting him halfway in a kunai lock, both pressing equally hard but neither making any headway. Naruto glared at him, and Zetsu emitted a scratchy laugh.

"Hello, Jinchuuriki." This voice was much more normal, yet still threatening in its own right.

"Zetsu." Naruto replied evenly; he didn't want to give the other man…plant…thing an opening.

The missing nin pushed harder, forcing Naruto back a step. "I was sent to locate you, and capture you if possible."

"_A shame, really. He looks tasty"_ came the scratchy voice once again.

Naruto smirked. "Akatsuki will fall, Zetsu."

He pushed Zetsu back a few steps.

"We shall see, Jinchuuriki."

He jumped back a few feet, avoiding Naruto's strike, and made a hand seal, hundreds of _Kage Bunshin_ appearing around the two on the ground and in the trees. The real Zetsu disappeared back into the ground, leaving only his clones as Naruto stared on in shock.

'_He knows Kage Bunshin?'_ Naruto thought, before placing his hands into his own seal, and producing a far greater number of _Kage Bunshin_. He knew Zetsu's clones would be much better than his in this situation, after all. Naruto disappeared into the ground, leaving the clones to stare each other down.

One Naruto clone leaped at the Zetsu clones, and the others followed suit; no longer screaming battle cries as they once did. The Zetsu clones reactivated their Hiru Banshō without seals or words and melted into the nearest object. The Naruto clones landed where their enemies once stood, and followed suit, deserting the battlefield.

Seconds later, one of the Zetsus reappeared on a high branch, and a Naruto clone instantly jumped out of a neighbouring tree. Naruto, watching from inside a branch significantly lower to the ground, couldn't see what had happened to them. His clone wasn't dead, and he didn't see a cloud of smoke, so he assumed they had both reactivated the technique and melted back into the tree.

Within seconds, more and more pairs of clones were attacking each other. None of them had managed to score a hit yet, but the air and ground was full of fighting shinobi. Naruto heard a poof of smoke and looked to his left to see a shadow clone disperse, giving him the memory of a Zetsu clone blocking his own clone's kunai thrust and destroying it with a second kunai. His enemy was skilled with a kunai; that was for sure. Far more skilled than he was.

Naruto wisely decided to remain in his hiding place; he would be dead in seconds if he left it. He could see why this guy was S-ranked; not a single one of his _Kage Bunshin_ had managed to land a hit. He was suddenly assaulted with memories of three clones being picked off one by one when they attacked one of the many Zetsus. One was caught in the shoulder with a kunai, another elbowed in the jaw, and the third was met with a kunai between the eyes.

He was losing clones fast, and still hadn't managed to even make a dent in Zetsu's forces. Something had to change. As far as he could tell, he hadn't even landed a single hit in the few minutes they'd been fighting. He pushed himself out of the tree he was stationed in, and placed his hands into the seal for the _Kage Bunshin_. He silently created another two hundred clones to give himself time to come up with a plan, but had to quickly duck back into the tree to avoid a swipe from one of the Zetsus who had melted out of the tree above where he had been stationed.

Fortunately, Zetsu wouldn't be able to sense where he was hiding, as there were so many shadow clones around with identical chakra signatures. This technique would have given him away, though, as only the original would have enough chakra to produce a _Tajuu Kage Bunshin_ technique. He quickly chose a ground-level segment of tree trunk half way around the clearing, and watched his reinforcements spur the others back into attack.

He'd lost at least a hundred clones so far, and hadn't even managed to disperse one Zetsu clone. Even if he did manage to eventually kill them all, the Akatsuki member could just create another stack of them. Shinobi don't make S-class without being able to make a few thousand shadow clones, after all. Something had to change. He silently stepped out of the tree and placed his hands into the pig seal, and then the tiger seal.

"_**Doton: Yomi Numa"**_

Naruto slammed his hands into the ground, and was rewarded with a giant swamp opening up in the clearing. It was large enough to fill the clearing, and his clones, thinking along the same lines as himself, managed to leap up to the higher branches of the trees. A fair number of Zetsu's clones weren't as lucky, and disappeared into the swamp.

Naruto smirked as he dissolved back into the tree, and took a position much higher in the battlefield. Things were going better now. From what he could tell, there were less Zetsu clones than there were before. It was only a matter of time until he got the real one.

He busied himself studying Zetsu's fighting style. Almost always, he would attack using kunai, although occasionally, if he had to, he would use taijutsu; something he seemed very good at, despite the plant-like object he had enclosing most of his body. He also seemed to have a far better reach than his own clones did.

He watched as a clone jumped out of a tree near his, and dived at a Zetsu on a branch below, intending to knock him into the swamp. His enemy looked up, just as the Naruto clone was in reach, and lost his footing, falling backwards into the swamp. Naruto grinned. _'Finally, score one to me.'_

A sound above him made him look up, watching two of his own clones leap at a Zetsu clone, which was jumping across the gap between them with a kunai in its hand. The clone on the right threw a kunai at the clone, forcing it to shift its centre of gravity as far as it could to the other side; directly into the path of the other clone, who hit it in the chest with a _Rasengan._

Which passed straight through.

Naruto was in shock. _'How could he have dodged that? Was it a space/time jutsu? Or was it…oh you have got to be kidding me.'_ Naruto inwardly growled in frustration.

_Bunshin no Jutsu._

So that was Zetsu's secret. He was using the standard academy clone; an illusion which can't hurt your opponent, but neither can it receive damage.

Naruto cursed himself for assuming it was the _Kage Bunshin_ technique. _'But who would expect an S-class criminal to use academy techniques so heavily?'_

'_This whole time, I haven't been able to kill his clones because they aren't real. He must be leaving his cover when he has a clear shot, and picking my clones off one by one, hoping he would eventually get me. They would never stand a chance against him. The swamp must have caught him off guard though; he probably allowed his clones to sink in and dispersed them, or brought them back up through the ground. The clone I knocked into the swamp must have deliberately fallen in, so it wouldn't have had a technique pass through it.'_

The blond shinobi grinned. _'If those are regular Bunshin, that must mean I will be able to sense his chakra.'_

He stepped out of the tree, facing away from the clearing, and felt out with his senses once again. Had had avoided it before because of the large number of chakra signatures everywhere; but now he was able to locate Zetsu on a branch above, stabbing a clone in the back of the neck, before wheeling around to stick a second kunai in the approaching clone's chest. He leeched back into the tree and moved to a hiding spot a few trees over.

'_So he's still here…and he can't sense my chakra.'_ Naruto thought, the beginnings of a plan in his head. He smirked, melting slowly into the ground below him.

Ten of Naruto's clones passed by Zetsu's hiding place, deliberately giving him an opening he greedily took advantage off. The others silently leeched partly out of their hiding places, exposing their face, torso and arms. Each reached into a pocket in their flak jacket and retrieved a roll of tags.

They began to place them all over the trees around them, littering the area with Naruto's custom seals. When they ran out, they all began to channel wind chakra directly into the air around them.

* * *

Naruto emerged onto the branch of a tall tree a few hundred feet away from the battle site, and quickly checked for Zetsu's chakra signature.

'_Good, he's still there.'_

He reached into one of his flak jacket pockets, and pulled out a large scroll. He unravelled it on the branch at his feet, and began to make a series of hand seals. Thirty seals later, he slammed his hands onto the scroll, activating a technique inspired by Deidara.

"_**Katsu!"**_

The tags remotely detonated, and the explosion was enormous. Trees were ripped up by their roots and flung around, the wind chakra mixing violently with the modified explosive notes. A giant sphere of fire formed around the clearly, encompassing it. The wind lasted longer, though, and Naruto barely kept his feet on the branch he was standing on.

It took almost a full minute for the sphere to die down, and when it did, Naruto was shocked. The entire area had been completely incinerated, leaving nothing but ash on the ground. A stream a hundred feet away from the clearing they had fought was dry, and the rocks were scorched. He jumped down from his tree, which had been just outside the blast radius, and made his way back over to the battlefield.

The clearing had evidently taken the brunt of the damage. Everything was black. The trees were ash, the ground surrounding the clearing was ash, and his swamp had solidified. A light wind blew through the area, and Naruto shivered, praying to anyone who was listening that there weren't any tags about to go off.

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a slight glint. He walked over to where he thought it was coming from, and adjusted his head repeatedly so that whatever it was would be in a position to reflect the sunlight. Again, he caught sight of it, and brushed some ash of the top of a pile, revealing the object which had been barely showing through the side.

A silver ring with the kanji for 'black' on it.

'_Zetsu's Akatsuki ring.'_

Jiraiya had told Naruto that the Akatsuki wore rings, but he had no idea what they were used for. Perhaps this ring could be studied for an answer. He shrugged and pocketed the ring, turning back to Sanjuka.

'_One down.'_

* * *

**A/N: Phew, that fight was a hard one to write. It was real tricky keeping the action intense when the battle wasnt a jutsu trade-off. What does everyone think? Whatcha reckon he's going to do next? Please review, it means a lot to authors when you do. Chapter 11 will hopefully be out tomorrow night!**

**Cheers,**

**Lord Bear**

_Hiraishin_ - Flying Thunder God

_Tenketsu_ - Chakra Point(s)

_Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu _- Mass Shadow Clone Technique

_Shiki Fuujin_ - Dead Demon Consuming Seal

_Hiru Banshō _- Leech all Creation

_Kage Bunshin _- Shadow Clone

_Doton: Yomi Numa_ - Earth Release: Swamp of the Underworld

_Bunshin no Jutsu_ - Clone Technique


	11. An Old Friend

**A/N: Hi, thanks to everyone who reviewed last time! I've got a heap of issues to address this time so this A/N might be a bit longer than most :P**

**1. Naruto's Whiskers - As far as i know, his whiskers are embedded into the skin, rather than _actual_ whiskers. In this story he never gets them _removed_ as such, he tattooes over them. like how you cant see the colour of the skin anymore once you tattoo over it in say, blue. The whiskers are still there, they're just hidden by a thin layer of skin-coloured pigment. Of course, the tattoo artist wouldnt have compensated for the growth when he uses the Kyuubi's chakra, so they will be able to be seen slightly through the pigment when he uses it's chakra.**

**2. Naruto's Skill Level - Naruto at the moment is approximately high B-class to low A-class without the Hiraishin. I won't give him a class _with_ the hiraishin, considering its a one hit kill move and doesnt really reflect on his abilities that much. He wont get the chance to use it in every fight either, a lot of his opponents arent appropriate to attack with it (Orochimaru will 'snake' himself back together, Kakuzu can turn his body into metal, Hidan is immortal, etc)**

**3. Super!Naruto - This fic is in **_**No Way**_** a Super!Naruto fic. It's not a constant training fic either. Chapters 2-4 were heavily based on training because it would be thoroughly ridiculous if Naruto managed to fight evenly with any S-class Akatsuki members despite barely training. Also, most of those chapters outlined his training plans, not what he had done. Those are goals for the three year span. For example, he has done almost no Genjutsu work, and his speed isnt nearly up to his aim (Rock Lee's at the Chuunin Exam). While I'm at it, getting speed like Rock Lee's was at the chuunin exam is a feasable aim, considering that being older than Lee was when he trained for that, Naruto's body will grow faster.**

**4. Fourth's Robe - No, he wont be donning the robe all the time for a fight; the robe was left to him by his father because he absolutely couldnt spare anything else of his. Naruto treasures it because (besides the notes on the hiraishin) it's the only thing he has of his father's**

**5. Chakra Sensing - Naruto hasn't mastered this; nor will he bother to, I dont think. It is an extremely difficult skill, and he has only mastered it to the degree that he can tell one human from another by their 'signature.' He couldn't tell the difference between Teuchi and the Yondaime by using the sensing, it allows him to detect signatures (who's who) not power levels (It's not a scouter! lol)**

**6. Why Didn't Naruto Check for Zetsu After the Explosion?** **- Because he forgot to, lol. He's not perfect, and by no means a strategic genius, so he just never thought of it.**

**7. Shogi - I introduced shogi for a few reasons. One was to give him a hobby which would lead him to be more active in the tight-knit community of Sanjuka (ala. NYC Central Park). The other was to give him a closer relationship with Kakashi, who I really don't want to have to sell to everyone when Naruto get's back. It's also good for him to have some sort of hobby rather than just training (I don't want to write a training fic) to do in his spare time. Linking it to strategy was something i thought of as I wrote it, but even if I didn't, I'd still find a way to explain why he's a bit more mature.**

**8. Council - In this story, the council is just Koharu and Homura. We know they disagree with Tsunade (a sympathetic character) on a number of grounds, so its plausable that they dislike Naruto as well. As for hampering his training; they arent trying to kill him or anything, just not make him incredibly strong until they can be sure they are able to control him. In his youth they were unable to control him at all (pranks etc) so it would make sense that they'd be concerned about him not being under their thumb.**

**Well, thats about it. I should probably rephrase my 'review even if you didnt like it' to not include people who only read four chapters and think its a Super!Naruto fic. Flame reviews by people who swear like sailors over misinterpretations are not welcome.**

**Thanks and Enjoy!**

* * *

That night, Naruto sat at a small ramen stand in a village a day's travel from Sanjuka, thinking over his situation. He'd been lucky to have defeated Zetsu; that was for sure. He knew he'd been fortunate that Zetsu had used regular _Bunshin_; if he had used _Kage Bunshin_ as well, Zetsu's clones would still have destroyed his easily. The man was insanely good with a kunai. He'd have no hope if that happened, he would never have been able to sense the real Zetsu if they were _Kage Bunshins_. On almost any other opponent, the regular _Bunshins _would have made short work of them. _'It was only my chakra sensing training that let me survive.'_ Zetsu couldn't possibly have known he could do that, though.

'_He'd been out of his element too,'_ Naruto thought as he blew on his noodles to cool them down. Jiraiya's information had said Zetsu was the Akatsuki's hunter-nin. The almost sole purpose of a hunter-nin is to track down their objective and kill it, either destroying or returning the body. If this 'Pein' guy knew what he was doing, Zetsu wouldn't be asked to capture any of the biju. The man would have been trained for killing and killing only. Instant kills which left no trace and completely assured the enemy was dead. You can't extract a biju from a dead Jinchuuriki.

'_No, Zetsu would have been used as a spy, and to kill any traitors or threats.'_ It was hard to believe that the leader of Akatsuki would make a mistake like dedicating their hunter-nin to the strongest demon. If anything he would get the weakest, likely being the least battle-oriented of the group. _'He must have been on orders to locate me and capture me if possible. I probably looked weak from the discomfort of the tattoo, so he thought I was vulnerable.'_

Regardless, Naruto knew his luck had once again pulled through for him. He'd wanted Zetsu taken out from the beginning. Now the Akatsuki wouldn't be able to get a fix on his position, unless they somehow tracked Zetsu's. _'No more Itachi and Kisame showing up every few days!'_ he rejoiced, ordering another two bowls in celebration, causing the chef to smile from ear to ear. It truly was worthy of a celebration; those two had given him hell between the Chuunin exams and when Jiraiya had to leave. Naruto assumed Zetsu had been keeping tabs on his location.

Not having to deal with them or any other Akatsuki for a long time was always a good thing no matter how you look at it. _'Unless they have another hunter-nin, or recruit one.'_ From Jiraiya's book, none of the other members had that speciality. This didn't include the elusive leader 'Pein' or his apparent second in command 'Konan,' who none of Jiraiya's information network operatives had managed to get even a description of. It was unlikely that the leaders of an organisation comprised of S-class ninja would be anything but battle-oriented. They wouldn't need Zetsu if they were hunter-nin, either.

Eventually he would have to fight Akatsuki regardless. He figured it was time to start keeping tabs on their activities somehow; he wanted to be able to find them when the time came. With Zetsu out of the way, he would be able to fight them on his own terms too. Previously they would have been alerted when he was in the area, and prepared instantly to capture him. If he was introduced to Jiraiya's spy network, that would be a lot of help.

Naruto stood and paid the chef for his meal, grinning as he saw the chef's eyes light up at the generous tip he had left. The stand looked quite worn, and he hadn't seemed to have had much business of late. _'The ramen was good too.'_ It was his duty to deliver the world from the evils of non-ramen cuisine, and no matter how many times Azami attempted to make him eat other foods, he would never turn his back on ramen, ramen stands, and those who appreciated the divine nature of the food.

He stepped out of the stand and began to walk along the road, hands in his pockets.

"_**You have done well, Anointed One."**_

'_Thank you, Ramen-sama'_ he replied to the voice in his head, closing his eyes and saying a silent prayer for the owner of the stand.

As he walked his thoughts drifted back to the Akatsuki. Had they known he was in Sanjuka? It was possible that Zetsu had only been sent to locate him recently and hadn't reported back yet, but it was equally likely that they had been keeping tabs on him for some time, yet hadn't made a move since he spent the majority of his time in the village.

Hopefully, they hadn't, but if they had, it could be easily tested by keeping the ring. Clearly they were important to Akatsuki's plans – the robes were their calling card, not the rings – so the organisation would want to get them back at all costs. If they hadn't attacked him in three months, he could be fairly certain they were unable to locate him. Of course, he would have to keep his guard up constantly for that time.

Naruto kicked a loose stone on the road as he made it to the outskirts, following it a few feet and kicking it down a hill. He paused to watch it bounce down the slope, before continuing his walk around the village. He wondered how everyone was back in Konoha. _'Did everyone else make chuunin? Shikamaru already has, and I assume Neji and Shino would have by now too. Sakura-chan is Baa-chan's apprentice, so she probably has too; if she isn't a jounin already. There's still almost two years until I return, so I guess I'm going to be the only one of the Konoha Twelve to still be a gennin.'_ He thought with a sigh. _'Well…everyone except for-'_

"Dobe."

Naruto's heart almost stopped, pure shock on his face as he slowly turned to face the voice. Ten feet down the path stood his once best friend, clad in the uniform of sound; an open white shirt and a purple bow. On his back he carried a straight black sheath.

"Teme!" he ground out. "What are _you _doing here?!"

Sasuke smirked. "That all you have to say, Dobe? What happened to bringing me back?"

"I _will_ bring you back, Teme! I promised Sakura-chan I would!" Naruto growled.

"Well what are you waiting for?"

Before Naruto could blink, Sasuke was in front of him, driving an uppercut into his chin. He flew backwards and managed to land upright; wiping the blood off his jaw and settling into the defensive stance of his taijutsu style. Sasuke came at him again, throwing a right punch followed by a left kick which Naruto comfortably blocked. He spun around and kicked out with his right food, hoping to catch Naruto in his already bruised jaw.

Naruto ducked the kick, and began his assault. While Sasuke was coming out of his spin, he attacked with a quick jab to the ribs and grasped Sasuke's right hand as he threw it forward for a hook, landing a heavy hit on the inside of the Uchiha's elbow. Sasuke growled and threw his body weight forward, encouraging Naruto to dodge to the side, and kicked out with his left leg to sweep Naruto's legs out from under him.

Placing a foot behind him to anchor himself, Naruto let his front foot be swiped and turned the momentum into a spinning kick, which passed straight over Sasuke's head. Sasuke launched into a quick uppercut, corking Naruto's calf as it passed over his head. He quickly stood and threw a set of punches at Naruto; two catching his chest while the rest were deflected. Naruto threw his own punch, channelling chakra into the knuckles on his gloves.

Sasuke's eyes widened as the air around Naruto's fists took on a slight blue aura; the telltale sign of a wind user's weapon. He jumped back just in time to have Naruto's fist pass him, and began moving quickly towards the trees littering the side of the road. Naruto followed with a growl, trying to land a hit on one of Sasuke's limbs. He hated to have to hurt his friend, but he promised Sakura that he'd drag him back one way or another.

Sasuke ducked as Naruto's fist came flying over his head and embedding itself a couple of inches into the tree behind him. He responded with four quick punches to the gut and one harder one to the jaw as Naruto tried to dislodge his hand. He rolled out of the way just as the blond got fed up and shredded the rest of the tree with his other fist. It fell towards Naruto, who rolled out of the way and found himself on the other side of the fallen tree from Sasuke.

Their eyes locked for a moment, and they both smirked.

Naruto drew a kunai and leapt at Sasuke, who parried with his own, and jumped backwards; drawing two shuriken and flinging them one after the other at Naruto. Naruto dodged to the left of the first, and blocked the other with his kunai, before throwing the kunai at Sasuke. It was easily dodged, but gave Naruto the time he needed to draw another and make up the ground between him and the Uchiha, slashing right to left with the kunai.

Sasuke jumped above the level of the slash, and caught himself on the trunk of the tree with his palms and feet. He pushed off and landed on a low branch behind Naruto, throwing another two shuriken at the blond. Naruto followed as Sasuke jumped from tree to tree, climbing higher and higher into the canopy. The Uchiha turned around to smirk at his pursuer, but was disrupted when two _Kage Bunshin_ slammed into him from above.

He lost his footing on the branch, as the two grabbed hold of him and pulled him towards the ground in a crude imitation of Lee's _Omote Renge._ Halfway down, Sasuke managed to pry a kunai from one clone's holster and stabbed it in the leg, dispelling it along with the kunai. The second clone loosened his hold to try and adjust for losing its partner, but he was able to use it to push off and land on a nearby branch.

The forest was quiet for a moment, as he looked around for Naruto. As he turned to his left, he caught sight of Naruto jumping down on him from a higher branch, wakizashi out and preparing for a downward slash. Sasuke moved a few feet towards the edge of the branch and Naruto landed, wakizashi cutting clean through the branch. Sasuke pulled two shuriken out of his holster and threw one at Naruto as the branch began to fall; throwing the second straight up as he fell. Naruto looked down to where Sasuke had fallen, but had to quickly flatten himself against the trunk of the tree to avoid a shuriken hitting him between the eyes.

A dull thud on the underside of his branch, followed by another one on the trunk next to him, told him he had to move. Activating his _Hiru Banshō_ while Sasuke wasn't looking and wouldn't be able to copy it, he disappeared into the trunk of the tree, following it to the ground. He reached out to feel Sasuke's chakra signature, and found it on a branch a few metres above him. Naruto moved up through the trunk of the tree and stopped when he found Sasuke; eyes darting wildly around in search for him. He pulled out a kunai and reached out of the tree to place it on his friend's neck.

"Looks like I win, Teme."

Sasuke laughed and slowly turned around, so he was facing Naruto and the kunai was at the back of his neck. "I'm just getting started, Dobe."

Naruto grunted as Sasuke pushed his neck back against the kunai and he dissolved into a pile of mud. He had to leave the relative safety of the tree a moment later as he heard the sound of a fire jutsu slam into the top of the tree and begin to burn down the trunk. He raced the flames to the ground, and escaped into the soil, resurfacing a few feet away behind Sasuke.

Sasuke's ninja sense went off and he rolled backward desperately to avoid a horizontal slash from Naruto's wakizashi. Coming out of the roll, he used his hands to push himself into a handstand, and landed two kicks to Naruto's jaw, sending him flying back into the base of a tree.

Naruto recovered in time to see Sasuke activate his Sharingan and charge him. He activated the _Hiru Banshō _again without hand seals and sunk into the ground, knowing that it couldn't be copied by the Sharingan without seals. He looked up to see Sasuke's sword stab through the tree above him, and took advantage of the opening by reaching up and slitting one of Sasuke's Achilles tendons with a kunai.

Sasuke screamed in pain and collapsed to the floor, while Naruto retreated a few trees away to escape the enraged shinobi. Sasuke made a few handseals and his right hand glowed green. He placed the hand on his heel, slowly healing the damage. Naruto resurfaced in front of the tree and looked on curiously.

"Since when did you know medical jutsu, Teme?"

Sasuke clenched his teeth ground out a reply, focussing too hard on healing himself to think of a sarcastic response. "Kabuto taught me."

"Really? How does that help you kill your brother?" Naruto mocked.

"Shut up!" Sasuke shouted at him. "I _will_ kill my brother. I don't _know_ why he's teaching me medical jutsu, but I have to learn it before he teaches me anything more powerful!"

Naruto smirked. "You sure he's not just making sure you don't lose a limb before he can take your body?"

Sasuke glared daggers at the blond, and cancelled the medical technique. He pulled out a kunai and charged at Naruto.

"No answer to that, eh Teme?" Naruto remarked as he blocked the swipe and jumped back a few feet. "How does Orochimaru being the last Uchiha sound?"

Sasuke growled and threw his kunai and a handful of shuriken at Naruto, who had to do a great deal of acrobatics to avoid his Sharingan-enhanced aim. _'I could barely hold my own with him in taijutsu before; with the Sharingan activated I won't stand a chance. I haven't even started my genjutsu training yet, but even if I had he could just cancel them all out anyway.'_ He thought as he jumped away from Sasuke, dodging the occasional projectile. _'It looks like this is going to be a ninjutsu fight then; but I don't want him stealing any of my techniques. I'll have to hide the handseals somehow.'_

"_**Katon: Goukakyu no Jutsu"**_

Naruto barely managed to scramble off the branch and out of the way, as the fireball decimated the tree he was standing on. He flew through handseals as he fell.

"_**Futon: Daitoppa no Jutsu"**_

He didn't put as much chakra in it as he would have if he was fighting Akatsuki. He didn't want to kill Sasuke after all, and images in his head of what he'd done to Zetsu stopped him from making it too destructive. Still, the wind technique caught the remains of the _Goukakyu_, causing a large explosion which rained wood and ash on him from above as he fell. He caught himself in a crouch on the ground and looked up for Sasuke.

* * *

Sasuke climbed to his feet on a lower branch a few trees over from the destruction. He had been lucky to escape that one, having jumped after his _Goukakyu_ onto the branch in hope of following it up with taijutsu. Trying to recover from the shake he had been given by the close call, he steeled his resolve and searched for Naruto, repeating the same mantra in his head.

'_If I can't defeat Naruto, I'm not strong enough to kill Itachi.'_

Orochimaru had trained him well; he knew that much to be true. But Sasuke Uchiha was no idiot. He knew all about the snake sannin's plans to keep him weak. None the less, his skill was improving astronomically compared to what it had been when he was in Konoha. He had no love for Otogakure or its ninja, so he used every opportunity to spy on their practice sessions and spars for jutsu to copy. He was going to rough the place up when he left, after all.

'_If I can't defeat Naruto, I'm not strong enough to kill Itachi.'_

He supposed the training had been good for him after all; Orochimaru was a harsh taskmaster. He'd even managed to beat some of the arrogance out of him. So much that he was able to acknowledge his arrogance as a weakness. _'I can't kill Itachi just by knowing I'm stronger than him.'_ The sound four were easy pickings for him now; not even Sakon and Ukon could hold him off for more than ten minutes. He knew he wasn't at Orochimaru's level yet; the real test of his strength would have to be Naruto.

'_If I can't defeat Naruto, I'm not strong enough to kill Itachi.'_

* * *

Naruto stood crouched on the ground, eyes moving slowly from side to side looking for any sign of movement. He had to be constantly aware, knowing Sasuke wouldn't hesitate to kill him if he had the chance. The Mangekyo would be too powerful a lure for his once best friend to pass up.

A slight whistling sound overhead alerted him to the incoming shuriken. He dodged left, and was forced into a roll as another one was thrown down at his new position; barely escaping the projectile which sliced into his wrappings and left a shallow cut just above his ankle. The blond cursed and leaped back a few feat, narrowly escaping a third and fourth shuriken embedding into the ground, as well as a leg chop from Sasuke, who had jumped off a low branch to engage him in taijutsu.

"No Kyuubi, Dobe?" Sasuke asked, smirking.

Naruto mirrored Sasuke's smirk. "No cursed seal, Teme?"

"Who said I needed it?" he questioned evasively.

"You don't." Naruto replied truthfully. "You can do better than that old snake's power"

Sasuke blinked. Had Naruto just acknowledged him? He furrowed his brow.

"This changes nothing, Dobe."

"_**Kunai Kage Bunshin no Jutsu"**_

Naruto was forced to dodge as Sasuke let loose a kunai, multiplying it into thousands with his technique. A quick _Kawarimi _barely let him escape, and he found that he had been grazed on the forearm by a stray weapon.

Naruto made his own seal, creating ten _Kage Bunshins_ as Sasuke ran through a long string of seals.

"_**Suiton: Suiryuudan no Jutsu"**_

Sasuke's water dragon rose up from a small lake a few trees away from their position, and charged after Naruto, barely missing Sasuke who evidently could not control it, forcing him to leap away from his position. Naruto was backed up against a tree as he changed his two final seals to turn his technique from an offensive jutsu to a defensive one.

"_**Doton: Doryuuheki"**_

Naruto lurched forward, spraying from his mouth a thick stream of mud which solidified to an earthen wall, seconds before Sasuke's water dragon crashed into it, almost breaking through but being eventually held off. He used the distraction to create a _Kage Bunshin _and activate his _Hiru Banshō_, escaping into the earth below him.

"_**Futon: Daitoppa no Jutsu"**_

His clone started off with a strong gust of wind, blowing away the remnants of his mud wall and flying towards Sasuke. The Uchiha ducked behind a large stone, which managed to hold up to the wind easily. He returned fire with five kunai; three of which the clone dodged, and two it caught and threw back, glancing harmlessly off the stone.

Naruto watched the fight take place from inside the stone, relatively safe unless one of them attempted to use their high powered moves and it caught his hiding place. The clone was dodging wildly, trying to buy its creator time to come up with a plan. Sasuke was getting incredibly irritated by the acrobatics display and made three seals, finishing on the monkey seal.

In his hand, the Chidori crackled to life, and he smirked at the clone, charging at it. Naruto's clone could barely spare the chakra to make a Rasengan, but was able to create a weak one; not nearly strong enough to put someone out of a fight. Sasuke growled and caught the clone, slamming his Chidori straight into the clone's Rasengan. They clashed for a moment, before his Chidori proved far too powerful, piercing into the clone and dispersing it with a pop.

Sasuke cursed his inattention inwardly. _'I should have seen that was a clone easily with the Sharingan!'_

* * *

Still hidden inside the rock, Naruto spared a warm smile for his old friend as he gained the clone's last memories.

Sasuke had aimed for his arm.

Naruto stepped out of the rock, and immediately was forced to dodge a hail of kunai from Sasuke. _'How does he carry all that junk?'_ Within moments, Sasuke was in his face, delivering a left hook to the jaw and a boot to the face, breaking Naruto's nose and sending him flying out of the forest and onto a grassy field. Naruto pulled himself to his feet and growled, clutching his nose, which was bleeding heavily.

"Teme!"

Sasuke allowed a small grin as he slowly made his way towards where Naruto stood. _'That felt good.'_

"Let's finish this, Teme!" Naruto shouted, still clutching his nose and trying to stem the bleeding. The skin of his nose had almost been completely shredded off by Sasuke's sandal.

"Hn." Sasuke complied, nodding his head slightly and making a set of handseals.

Naruto created a shadow clone, setting it to work building a far larger Rasengan in his palm. He hadn't trained himself to make it, but he knew he'd need something more than a regular Rasengan this time. The jutsu roared to life in his hands as he channelled almost all of his remaining chakra out of his palm, his clone trying desperately to keep the ball stable, but was almost drowned out by the near-deafening sound of chirping emanating from Sasuke's technique.

'_That's…that's Kakashi-sensei's Raikiri!'_ Naruto remembered, his eyed widening as he realised the implications. Sasuke had perfected the technique himself. He hadn't known it when he had left Konoha.

"Surprised, Dobe?" Sasuke asked casually, a smirk on his face as he held the technique; though he was somewhat intimidated by the behemoth Naruto held in the palm of his hand.

"Ask me again when I drag you back to Konoha." Naruto replied; wearing an identical smirk to Sasuke's.

The two stared at each other for a moment before grinning, and charging in with their techniques; a feral growl leaving Naruto's mouth as he launched himself at his friend.

Their techniques met in an explosion of light and sound; the perfected Raikiri forcing the _Odama Rasengan_ backwards. Naruto grunted and dug his back heel into the ground, bracing himself and pushing forward with his other. Dust swirled around them; displaced by the upgraded _Rasengan_ in a way similar to one of Garra's sandstorms.

Sasuke was forced backwards a step, his Raikiri losing out to the Rasengan; his lightening element being unable to make up the power difference between the two attacks.

'_If I can't defeat Naruto, I'm not strong enough to kill Itachi.'_

He pumped more and more lightening chakra into the attack, turning the attack point into a ball of light which forced both shinobi to avert their eyes.

'_If I can't defeat Naruto, I'm not strong enough to kill Itachi.'_

Sasuke took a step forward. And another. And another. Naruto was pushed back further and further with every step, barely keeping control of his Rasengan.

'_I'm going to lose…'_

There was only one chance left to defeat Sasuke, and he took it.

Naruto focussed the best he could on his control of the technique, and deliberately added a touch of wind chakra, flaring the wind shield he had developed for the _Rasenshuriken _at the same time with the remaining scraps of chakra he held.

The explosion blew Naruto back a good distance, his shield barely withstanding any of the blast. Sasuke caught almost the full power of the uncontrolled attack – his Raikiri absorbing some of the damage – and was blown high into the air, landing heavily a few feet from Naruto, face-down.

* * *

Naruto groaned and opened his eyes. _'Did I win?'_ His body was littered with cuts, and he knew that more than a few bones were broken.

Sasuke was in no better condition; the back of his head bleeding from a rock he landed on, and deep wounds all across his body. Thankfully none were at vital points. He lifted his right arm shakily, and used it to push himself up, flipping himself slowly onto his back.

"Dobe?"

"Yeah?" Naruto croaked, his voice box evidently suffering a blow during the explosion.

"You've been training." He stated.

Naruto allowed himself a smirk. "So have you."

They sat in silence for a moment, looking up at the clouds and trying to take stock of their injuries.

"What are you doing here, Teme?" That had been the question on Naruto's mind for most of the encounter. It couldn't have been coincidence that Sasuke was travelling through the village alone. "Shouldn't you be with the snake perv?"

Sasuke snorted to the best of his ability, with his injuries. "Orochimaru sent me to scout the villages around this area. He's planning a takeover in a years to add to Oto. Kabuto is somewhere around too, so I have to report in every day so he knows I haven't run off."

Naruto's eyes widened for a moment, before they narrowed suspiciously. "Why are you telling me this, Teme? Aren't you on Orochimaru's side?"

Sasuke almost laughed. "Orochimaru's side? He plans to take over my body in two years. I'm only interested in his training."

The blond's eyes lit up in hope. "Does that mean you're coming back?"

"No. It means I'm not going to limit myself to Orochimaru."

They sat in silence for a few more moments, and Sasuke's hand lit up as he began to heal himself.

"What are you going to do after you kill Itachi?"

Sasuke's concentration faltered when Naruto asked that question, causing his medical jutsu to break down. He paused for a moment, before starting up his medical technique again.

"He will probably kill me."

Naruto's eyes widened, a look of shock on his face as he used his elbow to prop himself up facing Sasuke, wincing at the exertion.

"What?"

Sasuke shrugged. "Itachi is a strong ninja. One of the strongest to have ever come out of the hidden leaf. I barely stand a chance. I probably never will. But I owe it to my clan to try."

Naruto could only stare as Sasuke admitted this. _'He knows he's going to die?'_

"I can't stop you, can I?"

Sasuke smirked. "No."

The two made eye contact and Naruto grinned.

"Then promise me one thing."

Sasuke cast a suspicious glance at him. "What?"

"Save Kisame for me."

Sasuke's eyes widened momentarily, before he smirked.

"Deal."

Naruto grinned and fell back onto his back, sighing. Sasuke looked from his hand to the shinobi on the grass near him, and shuffled over to him. He activated the medical jutsu.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing, Teme?"

"Just shut up Dobe."

* * *

Fifteen minutes later, Naruto's injuries were mostly healed, and the two stood at the exit to the village.

"Next time we meet, I expect a good fight"

"You'll get one, Teme."

They shared a smirk and shook hands. Sasuke turned on his heel and walked away from the village, hand held above his shoulder in a wave.

Naruto grinned.

'_There's hope for you yet, Teme'_

* * *

**A/N: Hopefully I can get Chapter 12 up in the next couple of days! Thanks to all my reviewers!**

_Omote Renge_ –Front Lotus

_Katon: Goukakyu no Jutsu _- Fire Release: Great Fireball_  
_

_Futon: Daitoppa no Jutsu _- Wind Relase: Great Wind Breakthrough

_Suiton: Suiryuudan no Jutsu _- Water Release: Water Dragon

_Doton: Doryuuheki _- Earth Release: Mud Wall

_Odama Rasengan _- Great Rasengan


	12. A Vital Mission

**A/N: Sorry this chapter took such a horrendously long time to get up; I had a small amount of writers block on Tuesday, and by the time i figured out what I wanted to do with this chapter, I couldnt find any time to write it! Don't worry though, it was only this chapter I was having difficulties deciding on; the rest of the story is completely mapped out so I'm not going to get writers block for that. Please review and Enjoy!**

* * *

Konoha's ex-ANBU captain crouched in the shadows, waiting for his signal. His instructions were very specific, and his goal was absolute. There was no room for failure, and anything less could immediately prompt a civil war. Root was too powerful to become their enemy. Konoha's peak power took the strength of root into consideration; if they were removed from the equation and the shinobi lost fighting them compensated for, the situation would look very bleak indeed.

The war with Oto had, as expected, been put off for the moment, likely thanks to the infiltration of Otogakure. It was obvious that Kumo had allied with them, and it could be assumed that Iwa would follow. Kiri was still recovering from the blood purges, and never had good relations with Konoha, so there was almost no chance of getting aid from there. Suna was also recovering from the Chuunin exams, Orochimaru using predominantly Suna forces as his cannon fodder during the equation, sending his Oto troops in behind, so as not to risk them.

The Shinobi world was very closed off at the moment. From what Konoha was able to discern, Kumo, Iwa, Kiri, Kusa and Ame had been completely sealed to anyone who isn't one of their own or a verified ally with predetermined reason to be there. It seemed everyone was aware there was a war coming, but not everyone knew just where it was coming from.

FLASHBACK

"Hai, Tsunade-sama?"

The blonde Hokage spun around on her chair to face the window, spying her guest sitting on the windowsill.

"Close the window, Kakashi."

The shinobi in question regarded her curiously. She was never so blunt and to-the-point. Something must have been biting at her; but what? He slowly shut the window and moved to stand on the other side of her desk, facing her.

"Sit, Kakashi."

Kakashi's brow furrowed; she was behaving very unusually today. When someone was summoned by the Hokage, they would generally remain standing, being offered a seat only in exceptional circumstances. Had he done something wrong? Had the council decided to demote him for failing to keep Team 7 together?"

He nodded, and took the offered seat.

"I have a mission for you."

Kakashi mentally sighed in relief. At least it wasn't bad news. And besides, he'd been hoping for a good mission for a while now.

"Hai, What type of mission."

"Assassination."

He nodded again, facial expressions unchanged. Assassinations were run of the mill for an ANBU, and especially for an ANBU Captain such as himself, despite having left the corps years ago. It was a slight disappointment that the mission wasn't something more unusual and exciting, but he could deal with an assassination.

"Who is the target?" he asked casually, having been through this procedure more times than he cared to remember.

Tsunade gazed at him for a moment, seemingly sizing him up. She turned and checked that the door and windows were firmly closed, before replying.

"Danzo."

Kakashi's jaw hung open. _'Danzo? Is she insane?!'_

"Wha…What? Danzo? Why would you want me to assassinate a Konoha ninja?" he stuttered, still in shock from the revelation.

Tsunade met his questioning glare with a glare of her own, and her lips formed two words.

"Coup d'état."

"He's _what?!_' Kakashi yelled, slamming his hands onto the desk for emphasis. Tsunade just stared at him, and after checking the door in case anyone came to investigate his outburst, he sunk back into his chair in thought.

'_It makes sense, I suppose. Danzo has always been very manipulative and politically powerful. His view of Konoha is completely different to the view of the Sandaime and Godaime; Root proves that.' _He mused._ 'Yes, it is quite possible.'_

"How long?"

Tsunade raised an eyebrow. "How long until what?"

"Until he attempts his coup" Kakashi clarified.

Tsunade massaged her temples for a moment before she replied. "Last night I sent an operative into Root headquarters to interrogate Danzo. According to the information gathered, Danzo has confirmed plans to have me assassinated within the week. Unfortunately, we were unable to deduce when this 'week' began."

Kakashi nodded. "I see…why have you waited until now to order his assassination?"

"I was waiting for you to return from your mission with Team Gai. You're the only one I believe is up to this task." She admitted. Piles of paperwork had been destroyed in frustration when Shizune had returned without Kakashi, and with the news that he wouldn't be in the village until the following night.

"Do you have a recommended course of action, Tsunade-sama?"

She nodded, and reached under her desk to pull out a small folder, selecting a sheet of paper from it and pushing it towards him. "These are the blueprints to the root headquarters. My operative has made a number of extra markings from the information gathered last night. These should be all you need to make it successfully to Danzo."

She pushed another piece of paper forward and replaced the folder under her desk. "This is some basic information on Root; expected number of guards, squad assignment, total number of shinobi, etc. I'm not sure how much of it will be useful, but you may need it."

Kakashi made no response, instead lifting up his headband and allowing his Sharingan eye to imprint the information onto his mind, in case he was unable to access the map or it was destroyed.

"I currently have another operative in Root at the moment. He will be on guard duty tonight, and will signal you at the exit. Three fingers gives you the all clear, while two fingers means you should use the other entrance. Four fingers calls the whole operation off, clear?"

"Hai, Tsunade-sama."

"Good. Kakashi, I can't stress how important this mission is. Danzo has been found to have been collaborating with Kumogakure to aid in his takeover of Konoha and his plans to turn it into a war machine. If this mission fails, within years there may be nothing left of Konoha as we know it."

Kakashi nodded; his eyes hardening in determination. He was not going to let Danzo destroy everything the five Hokages had worked for.

"I will complete the mission at once, Hokage-sama."

"Good luck, Kakashi."

END FLASHBACK

Kakashi stood and drew a kunai as two figures ascended from the ground, the surface rippling as they emerged. Both wore ANBU masks, although they weren't ones he was familiar with. Neither resembled an animal, instead bearing different patterns of lines. _'Root ANBU.'_

He remained in the shadows, watching the two check for anyone who witnessed them leave headquarters. They looked at each other and one nodded, before walking slowly away from the concealed entrance in the opposite direction to Kakashi. The other reached behind his back and touched his shoulder blade three times, each with two fingers.

'_That's the signal.'_

Kakashi silently dropped down from his position on an opposing rooftop. Root headquarters was hidden in a predominantly business locality; most buildings dedicated to bureaucratic paperwork tasks and such. It was somewhere that rarely saw any activity outside of regular working hours, which was perfect for shinobi who regularly operated under the cover of darkness. It also gave them the added advantage of a great deal of space to be utilised underground.

He passed over to where he saw the two shinobi exit, and touched the ground to test it for what he had seen to be a rippling effect. He raised an eyebrow. _'It's gone?'_ He knocked a few times, and finally decided to risk pumping some chakra into it. The ground once again rippled. _'I see. It reacts to chakra. That would explain why they didn't need to reactivate it when they left. They had already activated it from inside, and it wore off when the chakra they used ran out.'_

As Kakashi made his way further into the Root base, he altered his henge slightly to adjust for the barely perceptible differences he noticed in the uniforms of the few root members he passed, but never spoke to. Underneath his henge, he was wearing his full ANBU uniform, dragged out of the closet for the near fiftieth time since he left ANBU; having been placed it there to supposedly collect dust. Indeed, he found himself needing the cover provided by the uniform more and more these days, especially now with so much more free time for missions, considering the state of his gennin team.

He sighed as he thought of them. It had been well over a year since Sasuke defected to Orochimaru, drawn in by the lures of power. The moment he had found out about his decision, it had hurt like losing a teammate. Sasuke _was_ a teammate after all, and through thick and thin, after Obito he had sworn to value teammates above all else. When he had seen what Sasuke had done to Naruto, his blood had run cold.

Kakashi's relationship with Naruto had been unusual for a sensei and student. Koharu and Homura shared complete control over the village council, any other party having a negligible amount of power, giving them the ability to do little more than make suggestions. Their suggestions were almost always considered; the Sandaime's teammates being fair to their fellow councillors. It was clear that they were working in the interests of Konoha; although in this regard they were very much entrenched in the Danzo school of thought, disregarding potential consequences for individuals in face of a potential danger to the village.

Naruto, unfortunately, had been a victim of this type of thinking. The hate and malice shown to him in the past by the villagers had led the two to correctly believe that he has motive to unleash the power of the Kyuubi on the village, should he discover a way to. He was just too unpredictable in his early gennin days. He had also shown his determination to never back down, in his pranks and his utter defiance of the civilians' attempts to discourage him. The two councillors admired this trait in him, as they would with any shinobi, although in this situation it had made it much more difficult for them to judge him.

When it came down to it, Naruto was a wildcard.

Naruto had either deliberately defied or been completely oblivious to any attempts on their part to get him under their thumb. Danzo had immediately pushed to take the boy into his Root program –having equal power in the council before being cut from it when Root was disbanded – but his request was quickly headed off by the Sandaime.

In light of this, Homura and Koharu decided that it was best to limit the amount of training they would permit Naruto to complete, being still unsure where his allegiances will ultimately lie. Kakashi had long since vowed to treasure teammates, so he was not about to leave Naruto high and dry.

And so they began to train on a schedule, Naruto visiting him every night or so to train, when missions permitted it. Most of their time was spent in taijutsu training, Naruto having no style after years of neglect in the academy. He still didn't have one, as far as Kakashi knew; the most they had done was to work out the flaws in his basic motions.

Eventually Kakashi had managed to coax out of him that he had spied on the other students during their private training in an attempt to learn some sort of style, ending up with him developing a horribly mismatched amalgamation of different styles, which seemed to be heavily based on the Uchiha style. He assumed that Naruto had decided Sasuke would be the best to try and emulate, as the top of the class. Normally Kakashi would frown upon teammates stealing from each other, but Naruto really had no other choice, and to be honest he really didn't have much chance of imitating it to begin with.

The council had begun to feel more certain about Naruto's allegiances when Jiraiya took him on as an apprentice; the man had taught the Yondaime, after all. Kakashi knew that they hadn't been completely trusting of his own teachings thanks to his philosophy on putting the team first being looked down upon by most ninjas. Regardless, he had been contacted a few months ago with permission to train Naruto to the best of his abilities.

Sakura too, was no longer training with him; instead being apprenticed to the Godaime. _'All three of my gennin apprenticed to Sannin, what are the chances of that?'_ he mused as he made his way down to the third level of Root. He missed them, in truth, although he knew that he could not and would not drag Naruto and Sakura away from their chance to grow stronger than he would be able to make them.

His eyes widened as he felt the displacement of air behind him signalling a kunai strike, and sidestepped the projectile. _'So they know I'm here?'_

"Halt. State your code."

'_Or maybe not…'_

The Root ANBU reached to his ninjaken slowly, preparing himself in case Kakashi was hostile.

'_Tsunade-sama said they use code letters for their squads. She never said which one to use though. I guess I'll have to hope for the best'_

"Root-D"

The sound of shuriken told him that D was not the correct response. The copy-nin ducked a wild ninjaken slash and threw two kunai, both embedding into the Root ANBU's right bicep. To his credit, the Root made no sound, nor any attempt to remove the weapon, aiming for short stab with his ninjaken.

'_Danzo has truly turned them into monsters.'_

Kakashi ducked another slash and moved up inside his opponent's guard, slamming a kunai in between his eyes. The Root ANBU fell to the ground instantly, dead. He hated to have to kill another Konoha shinobi, but Root was a likely enemy, and if his objective wasn't completed they would cause the destruction of Konoha. Tsunade had given him full permission to kill as many Root ANBU as necessary to ensure his objectives were completed.

After disposing of the body via the textbook hunter-nin process, he proceeded further down into Root. The blueprints he was given had a few extra additions marked onto them over the top of the original map, confirming a room off the corridor to his left as Danzo's private quarters. He rolled up the page into a cylinder and placed it in one of his scroll holders, before looking around the corner.

There were two shinobi standing guard outside Danzo's quarters; both identical save for the slightly differing markings on their facemasks. Kakashi, still concealed by shadows, moved around the wide corner silently, remaining against the wall and moving up the corridor until he was directly opposite them. _'I have to do this absolutely silently, if Danzo hears anything happening, he will be alerted and the mission will fail.' _

Kakashi placed his hands in a hand seal and silently created a _Kage Bunshin_, thankful he had trained himself to perform the technique without the puff of smoke. Both crouched and unsheathed their ninjaken, his clone looking at him for confirmation. Kakashi placed three fingers on his thigh, and counted down.

The two Root ANBU fell immediately; Kakashi and his clone impaling the tip of their ninjaken directly through the front of their necks. Once they had been carefully laid on the ground, Kakashi dismissed his clone and reached for the doorknob.

'_This is it. If this fails, Konoha could fall.'_

He turned the knob and entered.

* * *

The hallway beyond was long and narrow, a single torch in the centre lighting its entirety. He walked silently; Danzo's expertise as a shinobi, even disabled, was not to be underestimated. A sliding door at the end was all that was between him and Danzo. There could be almost no element of surprise now; a shinobi could be perfectly prepared to fight by the time another could open a door and locate them in a room.

He slid the door open and stepped inside

"Ahh…Hatake Kakashi. I should have known they would send you." came the overly cheery voice of Danzo from the centre of the chamber. His figure was cloaked in shadows, but it was easy to distinguish his characteristic smirk even in the absence of light.

Kakashi's eyes widened, and he said nothing. _'He was expecting me?'_ he mentally shook his head and corrected himself. _'No. He was expecting someone. Although he seemed less than surprised to see me'_

"Have you come to eliminate me then, mmm?"

It was almost like the man was happy with this turn of events. _'I would have thought he would be frustrated by this; his plans for a coup d'état can't proceed if he is found out. Something's not right here…'_

"I see…Do what you must, then."

He nodded, and drew his ninjaken, already stained with the blood of Danzo's Root. He knew Danzo wouldn't accept his execution so easily, but he was being invited to make the first move.

Kakashi disappeared in a _shunshin_ and reappeared behind Danzo, striking down with his blade. Danzo made no attempt to move, other than placing his bandaged arm into the path of the stroke to absorb its impact. He never stopped smiling.

The copy-nin replied by jumping away and throwing a handful of shuriken. Danzo's hand snapped into his jacket and pulled out a kunai, which he used to deflect the projectiles. Kakashi was already in motion, throwing another handful of shuriken, adding a senbon into the mix to confuse him. Danzo once again blocked all of them, showing no difficulty adapting to the addition of the senbon. He was caught off guard, however, when Kakashi followed his weapons in and stabbed his ninjaken directly at his heart.

The attack connected, but Kakashi remained on guard. _'It can't have been that easy.'_ Within seconds Danzo was surrounded by a cloud of smoke revealing part of a bookcase in his place. Kakashi's eyes widened. _'Kuso, a substitution.'_

He spun barely in time to lock kunai with Danzo, who had charged him from behind. He stared into the cold, hardened eyes of the Root leader, who showed no emotion in response. Kakashi reached into his jacket, plucking out another kunai and threw it at Danzo's feet as hard as possible, forcing him to leap into the air to avoid having his foot hit. Taking advantage of Danzo's lack of pressure thanks to his being airborne, Kakashi lashed out with a hard right kick aimed to the chest. His kick was immediately blocked by Danzo's arm, which completely absorbed the impact. They leapt away from each other.

'_Does he have some sort of armour on underneath that bandage?'_

Danzo chuckled. "I see you are curious about my arm, no?"

Kakashi nodded once, maintaining a completely neutral expression. It was generally a bad idea to make any sort of communication in a battle with one as skilled at reading people as Danzo was, but finding out what was under the bandages was clearly more important.

"My bloodline."

This time Kakashi spoke. "What? You never had a bloodline."

Danzo's chuckle progressed into a full blown laugh. "Of course you would never have known. Konoha would never have known. Do you really think I would ever rise in Konoha's ranks if they knew I possessed the _Ginsei no Kobushi_?"

Kakashi glared at Danzo. "So you're an Iwa spy, then?"

"Oh no, far from it."

Kakashi barely kept himself from going for the final blow; he needed more information. _'If Iwa is involved in Danzo's coup as well as Kumo…'_

"Then how do you claim to possess one of Iwa's most coveted bloodlines?" he finally managed to ground out.

Danzo didn't respond for a moment, instead reaching for his bandages and slowly unwrapping them, revealing pure silver skin from his fingers to halfway up his bicep.

"Claim, you say?" he asked, deliberately baiting Kakashi, who, to his credit, refused to respond. "No I most certainly have it, although I was never quite able to control it like my family could…"

Kakashi almost snapped. "Your family? So you _are_ a spy."

"Maybe I am, maybe I'm not. You won't find your answer here."

The copy-nin tightened the grip he held on his kunai. "Your family is from Iwa, you must be a spy."

"Indeed my family was from Iwa. Mother and father both, as well as my son."

"Son?" Kakashi repeated in confusion. _'When was he able to go to Iwa to have a child? And why Iwa if he's not a spy?'_

"Ahh yes Kakashi-kun. Surely you know of him." Danzo began in a sickly sweet tone, before glaring at Kakashi and spitting at him. "His name was Kakko."

Kakashi gasped, his heart beating erratically. _'Obito…He's…He's the one who killed Obito! Kakko, I will never forget that name!'_ He spat back at Danzo, catching him full in the face as he lifted his forehead protector to expose the Sharingan eye.

"You will pay for killing him, Hatake!" Danzo roared, charging Kakashi and rearing back for a swing with his silver arm.

Kakashi darted to the side and made seals for a fireball, releasing it moments after he began the seals. Danzo ducked under the fireball, which slammed into the far side of the room, igniting a few pieces of furniture and a bookcase full of books. He responded with a left fist to the face, which Kakashi blocked successfully, followed by a hard right fist to the stomach. Kakashi placed his hands in perfect position to deflect and counter the blow, but the silver arm crushed through his defences and sent him sailing across the room, winded.

He stood after a few seconds, his breathing difficult, while Danzo simply watched.

"You are weak, Hatake. But you will pay for killing my son. I created this technique especially for you and your _sharingan_." He spat, with particular menace in the last word.

'_Is it possible that Danzo is this powerful?'_ Kakashi thought, still trying to regain his breath. _'I always thought he was a cripple. So did everyone else.'_

"_**Magen: Teki Sakkaku no Jutsu"**_

Growling, Kakashi drew his ninjaken and charged at Danzo, no longer with any perception of space or time; all he knew was his blade, and his enemy. Moments later he reached him, sinking the blade deep into his chest.

* * *

"Kakashi?" came a strained voice. "Why…Kakashi?"

Kakashi's eyes widened in shock. "O-Obito?"

"Why, Kakashi? Did you want – " He barely managed to get out, coughing up blood onto Kakashi's wrist, still wrapped around the hilt of the blade which had been driven into his friend's heart.

"Don't talk, Obito! You'll be alright! I'll get Rin!" Kakashi urged, standing up to look around for his other teammate frantically as his mind refused to work for him.

"Did you really want…" he coughed again. "Did you really want…my eyes that bad, Kakashi?"

Kakashi gasped, and his lip quivered. "I'd never do that, Obito! You _know_ I'd never attack you for your eyes!" he shouted, degenerating into a sobbing heap in the face of his dying best friend. "Rin! Rin! Help!"

Obito smiled, blood dripping down his jaw. "Don't worry, I've been prepared for this for a long time."

Kakashi could only stare. "Wh-What?"

"I knew you would want my eyes. I never activated them because I knew you would kill me for them. I would have been – cough – powerless to stop you. You were so much stronger than me. It would have been easy for you to kill me and take them. And it was. I knew as soon as I – cough – as soon as I activated it, that you would kill me soon."

"What? No! I'd never do that, Obito!" Kakashi screamed, sobbing uncontrollably on his friend's shoulder.

"But you just did." Obito told him, smiling warmly. "Goodbye, Kakashi."

Kakashi could only watch as Obito's eyelids drooped, and eyes became lifeless.

"**Obito!!"**

* * *

The world swirled once again, and Kakashi found himself crying hysterically and curled up in a ball on the floor of Danzo's private quarters; his ninjaken impaled in a block of wood from a nearby desk. He searched frantically for Obito, before his eyes came to rest on Danzo.

"I trust you enjoyed my little technique? Not even your Sharingan can break it." Danzo gloated, taking particular pleasure in the copy-nin's trauma.

"What – " Kakashi began, before everything began to click into place.

"You!" he growled, layering his words with the thickest killing intent his could muster. "How dare you! I'll kill you!"

Danzo watched with barely concealed amusement as Kakashi screamed and grasped his eye, stumbling backwards from the pain. Second later he stopped and met Danzo's gaze. His eye was no longer the three tomoe of the Sharingan.

It was the pinwheel of the Mangekyou Sharingan.

Danzo's eyes widened and he took a step backwards. _'Impossible, he's not even an Uchiha!'_

Kakashi glared at Danzo, before uttering a single word.

"_**Kamui"**_

Danzo's body seemed to close in on itself; a tiny tear in space opening in the centre of his chest. The Root leader let out an unearthly scream as his heart was forcibly ripped from inside his chest, and his body fell to the floor as the technique was cancelled.

Kakashi fell with it, drained completely by the effort required to sustain it. He had no idea how he knew to perform that technique, it just seemed…natural the moment he unlocked the Mangekyou. After a few moments of collecting his breath, he stood and hobbled over to Danzo's body, letting out a horrified gasp at what he saw.

The body was not Danzo's. It belonged to a young man with short black hair and two nose piercings. His eyes were a dull brown, and he bore no cross-shaped scare on his chin.

'_Shōten no Jutsu? Could it be? Is Danzo really this powerful?'_

Kakashi cursed. He had failed his mission. Danzo had escaped and was probably half way to Iwa or Kumo or wherever he planned to go. He ground his teeth together and clenched his fists.

'_Danzo, I will be the one to kill you.'_

* * *

Tsunade bolted to her window the moment she heard the knocking, barely taking a second to verify that it was indeed Kakashi on the other side. She fumbled with the mechanism for a moment, before stepping aside to allow her subordinate access.

"Was the mission a success?" she asked anxiously.

Kakashi sighed. "No."

Tsunade's stared at him in shock. "What do you mean 'no'? You're the best ANBU we've got! What the hell happened?!" she screamed, waving her fists in his face.

He launched into his verbal report, Tsunade listening silently, her head nodding every once in a while to indicate that she hadn't found where he'd gone wrong yet.

"Danzo was born in Iwa."

Tsunade blinked twice, taking a calming breath before opening her mouth to speak. "Nani!? Everyone just thought he was some abandoned kid!" she growled. _'He deceived us all.'_

Kakashi continued. "His arm bandages cover his _Ginsei no Kobushi_, which he has been unable to control to the degree required to activate and deactivate it at will."

Again, Tsunade could only blink. The depths of Danzo's deception expanded faster than she was able to keep track of, which was what made him such a formidable political opponent.

"He is strong. He was able to create a genjutsu which not even the sharingan could penetrate, nor could it copy. It was named the _Magen: Teki Sakkaku no Jutsu._ It slows the processes of the brain and forces you to believe you are killing someone close to you." He paused. "I saw Obito."

Tsunade placed a hand on his shoulder and gripped it, nodding to show her support. If she saw herself kill Dan…

"I have gained the Mangekyou Sharingan."

Tsunade's breath caught in her throat. "Nani? But it was just an illusion!"

Kakashi shook his head. "Apparently it was enough."

She stared at him for a few moments, before returning to her seat. "That will be helpful in the future, although we have more important matters to consider first. Continue with your report."

Kakashi did as he was ordered, prompting a confused look from Tsunade when he described killing 'Danzo,' and an equally horrified expression to his own when he mentioned Danzo's corpse morphing.

"_Shōten no Jutsu_? He can perform such a technique?" Tsunade asked in shock, more to herself than to seek an answer from Kakashi.

The situation kept getting worse and worse. Danzo had left Konoha and presumably retained the full support of Root. When Root, Kumo, Iwa and Oto made their move to invade Konoha, they would only be able to rely on the still-recovering Suna for support. They had almost no chance.

'_And to make things worse, Danzo is far more powerful than any of us ever imagined…'_

* * *

**A/N: Chapter 13 should be out within a few days, although updating might slow down in the next few weeks as I get closer to exams. I wont update at all in the first two weeks of November (exam period), although I'm almost positive I'll get sick of studying and end up writing some more. If you see me update in that time period, feel free to PM me kicking my ass for not studying! Thankyou to everyone who has reviewed so far, it feels great every time i get one, even if it's just a 'great chapter' or something :)**

**Cheers,**

**Lord Bear**

_Ginsei no Kobushi_ – Silver fist

_Magen: Teki Sakkaku no Jutsu_ – Demonic Illusion: False Enemies Technique

Shōten no Jutsu – Shapeshifting Technique


	13. Final Moments

**A/N: Wow, I had a horrible time trying to write this one. Not that it was really hard (although it was fairly challenging compared to most of my other chapters), but I had promised myself in my last A/N not to upload any more chapters until my exams are finished (November 15th, or something like that). Turns out that didnt work so well. I guess I just couldn't fight the temptation to upload again, despite fighting it all week (which is why my update took so long - I had to force myself to slow down). Anyway I have a few points to make before I start this chapter. Well, at least I did at one stage or another, I've forgotten them all now. I guess I'll have to go through my reviews to remember. Alright here we go:**

**1. Kage Bunshin - One of my reviewers pointed out that Kage bunshin would tire the Sandaime out by creating two of them, therefore Ino and Konohamaru shouldn't be able to use them. I cant remember where this was in the manga, nor can I remember what was actually said, but I disagree. No, not with my reviewer necessarily, with either the common interperetation of the manga or with what Kishimoto said.**

**I figure that if a ninja has been training their chakra capacity all their life, it's going to be way way above civilian level, so splitting their chakra up shouldn't be detrimental to their health until the amount in each clone is below what is necessary to live (somewhere below civilian level). In this case it would be likely that the Sandaime would be able to create a large number of clones, but if he wanted them to be able to use high level techniques, he could only have one of two at a time for fear of burning out all his chakra straight away. This would be the reason the Kage Bunshin is a kinjutsu; performing it by itself while training can lead to overestimation of a shinobi's own reserves, and when used in battle, the shinobi is likely to attempt replication of the number of clones used in training. If they spread their chakra out too thin (which doesnt matter while they're not fighting), they will instantly suffer chakra exhaustion in battle.**

**(Edit: One of my reviewers pointed out that it may have been (or was definately?) because the Sandaime was old that he couldnt make more than two. This would make sense if chakra capacity decreased with age, which - looking even further into things - could even be the cause of death by old age. Don't pick me up on this little theory though, it's not even part of the story lol)  
**

**Also, Ino's Kage Bunshin never used any techniques which required chakra, other than Naruto's 'special' henge. Ino herself only used the same technique and her Shintenshin. One Kage Bunshin, two of what is basically a henge and the Shintenshin isn't enough to cause an overload.**

**Konohamaru hasn't been seen using the technique yet, so we are unable to do more than speculate on how he will use it.**

**(Edit: A reviewer pointed out that Konohamaru uses the Kage Bunshin for his sexy jutsu variant. I meant we haven't seen Konohamaru use this technique in my story, so we dont know if he plans to use it like Naruto or Ino - wiping everything off the shippuuden slate. Also this would add further credence to Konohamaru being able to use the Kage Bunshin...considering he can, and all...)  
**

**2. Tsunade in the last chapter - If anyone noticed (only one person who reviewed pointed it out), Tsunade is slightly Out Of Character. This is deliberate because she is unbelievably stressed (she just ordered the assassination of a prominent figure in Konoha politics) lol**

**3. Sound Country - The Land of Sound was formerly known as The Land of Rice Fields, before Orochimaru decided to base his village there. Orochimaru isn't the kind of guy who lives nicely in somebody elses land; especially if they're completely powerless to stop him. So he renamed it The Land of Sound to suit himself, according to internet fact sites (and I seem to remember it being in the anime/manga too).**

**Just before anyone points it out, I know there isn't really an Otokage, but Orochimaru isn't going to give a rat's what the other villages think, and calls himself one anyway (this part isn't canon)**

**4. A few chapters ago in one of my A/Ns I mentioned the councilors being Himura and Koharu. Now this was a big mistake. I was not intending this fic to be a crossover, although I admit that replacing Homura with Himura Kenshin would make for an interesting piece. Interesting in the probable four or five lines he would get total through the entire fic. I'm also working on my Harry Potter/Naruto crossover, featuring Harry as Idate Morino, and Ron Weasley as Ranmaru (the guy in Raiga's backpack)  
**

**Alright thats pretty much everything I can think of at the moment. I'll add to this if I manage to come up with something else. I encourage everyone to review, and I...Oh...OH!**

**I just remembered**

**I hit 100 reviews.**

**And my 100th reviewer was...**

**InARealPickle**

**Cheers to everyone who reviewed!**

**Sorry I spent so long up here but this is still over 5,000 words!**

**Heres Chapter 13, Enjoy!  
**

* * *

"Was your mission a success, Sasuke-kun?"

Orochimaru's voice was sickeningly sweet; far too sweet considering the mission he referred to was to scout villages for invasion.

"Hai, The _mission_ was a success" Sasuke replied, voice dripping with sarcasm.

Orochimaru merely smiled. "You were unsatisfied with my mission?"

Sasuke scoffed. "If you could even call it that."

"Do you have results, then?" he asked, for the moment ignoring Sasuke's insubordination.

Sasuke nodded and produced a scroll from his pocket. "These three villages are suitable for your goals."

"Only three?" he replied, turning a curious eye to Kabuto, who merely shrugged.

"Almost all of the villages are self-sufficient, and almost none are built in advantageous positions. It would be a waste of resources to occupy them."

"Do you agree with his assessment, Kabuto?"

Kabuto shrugged once again. "I thought there were one or two more which had promise."

Orochimaru turned back to Sasuke again. "Just three then, Sasuke-kun?"

'_Is he testing me?'_

"Hai, three."

The snake sannin stared at him hard for a few moments, seemingly judging him as he fought to maintain a neutral expression rather than gouging the man's eyes out. A few second later he nodded and spoke again.

"Was there anything else you wished to tell me?"

'_Does he know?'_ Sasuke thought, slightly panicked. His eyes met Kabuto's for a brief moment, but they displayed no emotion. _'If Kabuto doesn't know anything then he's probably bluffing.'_

"No, nothing." He finally stated firmly, head held high to prove he was not intimidated.

Again, Orochimaru sized him up; this time for a while longer.

Sasuke broke the silence. "What will you be training me in today?"

Orochimaru let out a short laugh, and Sasuke glanced over at Kabuto to see that he had a slight smirk on his face. "Go and practice your taijutsu or something, I have other things to attend to. Come, Kabuto."

Kabuto followed Orochimaru out of the room, leaving a frustrated Sasuke in their wake. '_He's going to blow off my training __again__? I just get back from my first mission for over a year, and I'm not even worth training?'_

Sasuke ground his teeth and clenched his fists. _'If that's the way it's going to be.'_

He slowly opened his hand and stared at his palm, marred by the slight slits of red his fingernails made as they dug into his skin. He grinned.

'_I won't be tossed aside. I will be stronger than you. And then I will kill you, Orochimaru.'_

* * *

Naruto walked back into Sanjuka three weeks after he'd left. He'd taken the extra time to head over to one of the smaller Waterfall Country villages so he could hire a courier ninja. Strange people those couriers. Fortunately, it was just what he needed; the Kumo/Oto treaty had been sitting in his bag for weeks now. It probably wouldn't have mattered, considering how obvious it was that Kumo and Oto were allied in the war, but substantial proof couldn't hurt.

'_Besides, Baa-chan will kill me if I don't send it to her.'_

To be fair, he hadn't really had a chance to leave the village between Oto and getting the Hiraishin seal; although he knew he was just making excuses for himself. The courier ninja was the perfect choice for him. They were relatively cheap, so he wouldn't have to go hire a squad from Takigakure or one of the…less desirable villages. Perhaps he could have hired an Otogakure team? That would be ironic. Delivering Orochimaru's valuable documents using his own shinobi.

Nobody ever seemed to attack courier ninja either; it was too hard to tell if they were carrying a message from your village, from an allied village, from an enemy village, from a civilian, or something completely inconsequential. If you killed a messenger ninja and it was an important document or ally's document, you were pretty much honour bound to deliver it yourself. Regular ninja were much more common targets; being easier to tell where the ninja are from, and often having orders to kill any you run into regardless.

The treaty should be safe on its way to Konoha. He'd sent it anonymously too; if word got out that he had been the one to break into Otogakure, he'd be a fiercely wanted man. Number one in the bingo books wasn't something he was especially striving for at this point in time. That and if Jiraiya or Tsunade heard about it, he would be back in Konoha before he could put on his geta. He had things to accomplish, and being back in Konoha would make them much more difficult.

He was surprised he was getting so much leeway, to be honest. Jiraiya had never specifically told him to remain in Sanjuka, but he must have assumed he would. Otherwise he was positive he'd never be allowed to travel around without reporting in. It said a lot for the trust they placed in him too. He was proud to be able to practically call them family.

It was dark outside, having returned in the early evening, slightly after dinner time. The streets were still quite busy, so he'd have time to get something to eat. He wore a simple orange T-shirt with a pair of long black pants, having changed before entering the village and stowing his bag in one of the storage seals on his arm. He was thankful that the tattoo artist had thought to make them invisible to anyone but himself. He would be hard pressed to explain why he had seals on his arm considering he was supposed to be a civilian.

He hesitated for a moment, as he went to push away the flaps enclosing Takahashi's ramen, hearing familiar voices inside.

"Where's Naruto-kun, Azami-san? I haven't seen him for weeks."

Azami's familiar sigh passed his ears as he stepped to the side to avoid his feet being seen.

"How would I know? He said he's going to get a tattoo, but he's gone for three weeks" she began. "Three weeks! It can't possibly take three weeks to get a tattoo, can it?" she asked, with a slightly venomous undertone.

'_She doesn't sound happy.'_

"Calm down, Azami-san. I'm sure he'll be back as fast as he can."

Azami grunted in agreement and Hanae looked on in concern. "Don't worry, he won't miss it."

She shrugged and continued to eat her ramen. Naruto worked himself into a panic trying to figure out what he might have missed.

'_Festival, no…our one year, no…her birthday, no…'_

Accepting his fate of a Sakura-sized head-bashing for forgetting whatever his forgot, he steeled his nerves and stepped into the ramen bar.

"Won't miss what?"

Two heads instantly snapped up to look at him in shock.

"When did you get back?" Azami demanded to know, as soon as she had regained her composure.

"Just then, why? You seemed pretty angry."

Azami glared at him for a moment, before blinking and staring at him like he'd grown another head.

"What happened to your face?"

Naruto frowned, just what was wrong with his face? He finally makes it back and she immediately insults him? And his looks too?

"What happened to those mark–"

Oh. The whiskers.

He felt a bit better now, knowing she wasn't repulsed by his image. Well, she could have been, but at least it was more likely that she was just confused. He'd take confused over disgusted any day. To make things even better, she seemed to have forgotten about whatever he did wrong for the moment.

"I got rid of them," he replied flatly, cutting her off.

She looked confused for a moment and blinked before responding. "What do you mean you 'cut them off'?"

Naruto arched an eyebrow.

"That's not what I said at all…"

She stopped for a moment. "What?"

"I said I 'got rid' of them, not I cut them off" he replied, taking a seat and ordering a couple of bowls of ramen.

"How did you do that? And weren't you supposed to be going for a tattoo?" she asked in rapid fire, barely breathing between the sentences.

Naruto waited for a moment, picking up a pair of chopsticks and snapping them as he waited for her to put two and two together. Finally…

"Oh! You covered them up!" she giggled, evidently pleased with herself for coming to that conclusion. A second or two later she stopped giggling instantly, and replaced her smile with the darkest frown she could possibly muster. From his perspective it looked more like a pout.

"Then why did you take three weeks?" she half shouted, half questioned sweetly. It was an unusual mix and shouldn't really be possible, but she managed to pull it off, Naruto instantly beginning to sweat.

"Were you off visiting another girl, Naruto-_kun?_" she continued, glaring at Naruto menacingly.

Naruto calmed himself in front of the misleadingly small behemoth he called his girlfriend, and prepared himself to use the exceedingly clever excuse he came up with on his way to the ramen stand.

"Ninja."

Azami blinked and sat back down, only now realising that she had stood and was towering over Naruto.

"What?"

"There was a ninja battle." He clarified.

She blinked again, her face firmly vacated of all emotion. "You're a ninja?"

It was Naruto's turn to stare blankly now. "No…"

"You just said you were in a ninja battle."

"I was _at_ a ninja battle" he clarified.

"What are you talking about?" she asked suddenly. Evidently she had no idea what was going on. At least she didn't jump to conclusions and hate him for being a ninja. They would be accurate conclusions, but lord knows people finding out his secrets was never cause for celebration.

He sighed and prepared himself to tell his abbreviated and suitably edited story.

"I was on my way back and got caught up in a fight between two ninja. One looked like a giant plant and the other I couldn't really get a good look at. They noticed me but were too busy attacking each other to pay me any attention." He got out, presenting suitably dry facts so that he wouldn't seem too knowledgeable on the subject.

"They they both multiplied into hundreds of copies!" he shouted, adding large amounts of enthusiasm to his tone; the way any teenage boy would talk about a shinobi battle. "I ran away but five minutes later there was this huge explosion and I was barely out of the way in time!" He was making hand gestures wildly, a wide grin firmly fixed upon his face.

Azami's eyes had widened and her mouth had fallen open slightly during his explanation. She quickly schooled her features and returned to frowning at Naruto.

"That still doesn't explain why you were almost two weeks later than expected!"

"Oh" Naruto replied seriously, before smiling widely and rubbing the back of his neck. "I got lost."

"Nani? Did that have _anything_ at all to do with the ninja battle?" she yelled, towering over him and baring her fist in his face. He was having serious Sakura-related déjà vu today.

"Sure it did!" he exclaimed happily, still grinning from before.

She gave him a pointed look, which clearly told him to _explain_ or there will be consequences.

"Well they managed to blow up a big part of the forest, and I ran off in any direction that seemed to work for me at the time, so I ended up in some village in the opposite direction a few days later. I was over a week's travel away by the time I got there."

Azami let out a small "Oh" and lowered her fist, returning to her meal and allowing Naruto to start his, which had been sitting on the bench threatening to cool down throughout most of the exchange.

Naruto finally broke the silence after a few moments, Hanae having gone out the back for some reason or another.

"So…won't miss what?"

He was rewarded with even more silence than before. He got a glare or two, but nothing vocal, which was never a good sign in these sorts of situations from what he understood.

"Azami-chan?"

Another glare and Naruto was growing steadily more confused. Her birthday had been a while ago; he'd bought her a necklace with a large blue stone hanging off it. The stone wasn't particularly expensive, but the necklace looked remarkably similar to his own; the Necklace Tsunade had inherited from the Shodaime Hokage. Azami had loved it.

It couldn't have been their one year dating anniversary either. Unless the months had been re-ordered. Which they hadn't. The festival was only recently too, so there couldn't be another one. Maybe the village had more than one festival? No, Naruto would have known it; he'd been there for more than a year, after all. But maybe he'd been away from the village during it? He did have to leave a lot, after all. Again, he was sure that if that had been the case, he would have at least heard about it.

He studied her intently as she drained the rest of her bowl. Why couldn't things just be simple? One moment she was giggling and trying to spy on him in the baths, the next she was glaring daggers at him. Granted, she'd rarely ever done the whole glaring/angry thing, but still, she hadn't even told him what he'd forgotten! How frustrating. Maybe if he tried again…

"So…won't miss what?"

This time he was rewarded with Azami slamming her bowl down on the bench, standing up and walking stiffly out of the stand. Naruto stood there gaping like a fish, while Hanae grinned.

"What are you laughing about?!" Naruto yelled at Hanae, waving his hands around wildly in frustration.

"Oh nothing, nothing" Hanae replied conspiratorially. "But you're lucky you got back when you did, she might never have forgiven you otherwise."

Naruto narrowed his eyes in suspicion. "That doesn't _sound_ like nothing," he accused.

"Oh nothing ever does, nothing ever does. Of course nothing wouldn't sound like nothing. It could sound like anything!" she exclaimed, picking up his ramen bowl in an attempt to use it as some sort of prop for explaining her nonsensical theory.

Naruto's eye twitched, that was his ramen.

"But then again nothing cannot be something, and –"

"– Lee-kun!"

Hanae instantly collapsed into her chair, hearts in her eyes as she leant her chin in her palm and daydreamed about all a flock of bishonen closing in on her position.

He finished his ramen in silence and left change for the meal, calling her name to snap her out of her romance-induced trance just as he was leaving the stand.

Naruto felt slightly bad for using such an underhanded tactic to quieten her, but his head was starting to hurt from all the 'Nothing is something and everything is only what it's not' talk. He had to do something, right?

* * *

The next few days were hell for Naruto. He tried absolutely everything he could think of to get back on Azami's good side. Flowers, chocolates, cakes; everything short of serenading her from outside her house. It wouldn't work anyway, her house was single storey and she had no balcony.

Sometimes he could swear he caught a sad smile on her lips as she turned away from receiving one of his gifts; but then again he could never be sure.

On the third day, when he had almost given up completely, there was a knock on his door. He quickly sealed away the scroll he had been working on, thankful that he no longer needed to keep his gear in a safe due to the invisible seals tattooed onto his arm.

"Who is it?" he called out, tidying up the room as best he could with the minimal amount of time he was given and the minimal amount of effort he felt was worth applying to cleaning up his apartment.

"It's me, Naruto-kun"

'_Azami-chan? What happened to the cold shoulder?'_ he asked himself, totally confused over this course of events. Shrugging it off he looked over his surprisingly clean abode and went to answer the door.

"SURPRISE!"

Naruto quickly slammed the door shut and pressed his back to it, spreading his arms wide while his eyes darted around the room for an escape route. That was the scariest door-opening he'd had since Itachi and Kisame. And he didn't get very many welcome 'surprise' people showing up on his doorstep when he was in the village either.

Blasted fox.

And surprise what? Surprise I've come to forgive you for something you have no recollection doing? Surprise I've come to gut you like a fish? Surprise this is my new boyfriend? There were just too many possibilities.

Still, he'd have to risk it.

Slowly and carefully, he edged the door ajar and peeked out, spotting a stationary Azami with no weapon in her hand.

'_Well that's a good start'_

Opening his door the rest of the way he was surprised to see Hanae and Rokuro flanking Azami, sporting confused looks on their faces and carrying a few bottles of sake each.

"Surprise what?" Naruto growled.

Azami blinked. "Huh?"

"I said surprise _what_?!" he growled again, louder and more aggressive than before.

"Uhh…surprise…Happy Birthday?" responded a completely bewildered Azami.

"Happy…Birthday?" Naruto muttered, more to himself than anyone else, before blushing and gesturing all of them inside.

Hanae's eyes wandered around the apartment and taking it in, having never been there before, while Rokuro was much more critical in his gaze. After all he did own the apartment. It had been a while since he'd been there anyway, only doing his checks every six months or so out of trust in Naruto. They played shogi almost every day anyway, so he'd be able to tell if Naruto was acting awkwardly because he broke something or a similar scenario.

Naruto sat down and Azami seated herself on the arm of the same couch.

"I can't believe you forgot your _own_ _birthday_ silly!" Hanae told him, giggling as she sat on the other couch. Rokuro followed her lead and sat next to her

'_Wait a minute…forget?'_

FLASHBACK

"Calm down, Azami-san. I'm sure he'll be back as fast as he can."

Azami grunted in agreement and Hanae looked on in concern. "Don't worry, he won't miss it."

She shrugged and continued to eat her ramen. Naruto worked himself into a panic trying to figure out what he might have missed.

'_Festival, no…our one year, no…her birthday, no…'_

END FLASHBACK

"_My _Birthday?" he asked Azami incredulously. "You mean it was _my_ birthday all along that I forgot and made you upset and decide to ignore me for three days?"

She looked away guiltily, and Hanae placed a calming hand on Naruto's forearm.

"Now Naruto-kun, that's not all. She'll tell you later, alright?"

Naruto looked curiously at Hanae, who squeezed his arm for a moment and offered him a sad smile, before letting go and leaning back against Rokuro. He turned to Azami and found she was still looking away. His heart clenched in his chest.

"How about some Sake?" Rokuro offered quickly, seeing an awkward silence descend upon the group.

Hanae enthusiastically agreed, and drafted Naruto for saucer-collection duty in the kitchen on the basis that it was his apartment and he was the one most likely to know where everything is. He wanted to point out that it was _Rokuro's _apartment, and not his at all, but he knew it wouldn't help any. Grumbling, he dragged himself out of the room in search of a crockery set.

Returning armed with four saucers, he went to set them out on the table, only to be stopped by two large presents sitting on the table, gift-wrapped with bows and everything. His eyes widened and he automatically placed the saucers in a stack on the side of the table, before sinking into the couch.

He had presents? Sure, last year he had been out of the village on his birthday training, and hadn't really known Rokuro, Hanae or Azami well enough to tell them when his birthday was, but getting presents from new people was still a foreign concept. Jiraiya, Kakashi, Iruka and the Sandaime had given him presents, but for some reason this was different.

Hanae and Rokuro weren't his senseis, they weren't sibling figures, father figures or grandfather figures; they were friends he'd made without having to prove anything. He didn't have to prove he wasn't the kyuubi, he didn't have to fight tooth and nail to get them to notice him, and he didn't have to prove his skill as a ninja to gain their recognition. In fact if he had tried to prove himself as a ninja in their eyes, he probably wouldn't have gained their recognition at all.

That thought saddened him for a moment; it still felt like living a lie, like it felt pretending he didn't have the Kyuubi inside him to Sakura, Ino, Lee and all the other Gennin. As callous as it felt to think it, he knew that he would probably never see any of them again once he left for Takigakure in under a year.

At least he had managed to tell his friends about the Kyuubi before he left Konoha. When Sakura and Ino had hugged him, and Lee given him the thumbs up after sharing his darkest secret had been one of the happiest moments of his life. That was the day he had the picture he carried of them taken.

Wiping a stray tear from his eye in an attempt to stop any of the three seeing, he pointed to the presents and them to himself. "For me?" he asked softly, not trusting his voice for the moment.

Rokuro and Hanae both smiled and nodded, noticing the tear Naruto had wiped away but not reacting to it. It was obvious he wasn't entirely used to such displays of affection from people he wasn't really close to.

"Go on, mine first!" Rokuro pitched in, elbowing Hanae lightly in jest and motioning to the flatter, yet larger package.

Hanae picked up on his game immediately and elbowed him back, motioning to the slightly taller box. "No, mine first!"

Naruto watched the two bicker for a moment with a small smile on his face. _'They really work well together, huh?'_ He looked towards Azami to see the back of her head, her gaze still fixed out the window. He closed his eyes for a moment and his smile became bittersweet.

"Go on kid, open a present already!" Rokuro ordered him, feigning impatience and leaning across to tap him on the arm. Naruto nodded and reached for the flatter package.

"No, not that one! The taller one!" came Hanae's desperate plea, which was quickly muffled out by Rokuro covering her mouth with his hand.

Naruto turned his head to face Hanae, what was obviously Rokuro's package already in his lap, and stuck his tongue out at her, tearing into the wrapping with gusto regardless of her indignant squeals.

"Thatta boy!" Rokuro cheered, slapping him on the back and grinning victoriously at his girlfriend.

Azami sat motionless, staring out the window.

"A shogi set?" Naruto asked, grinning and practically bouncing in his seat. Kakashi had never given him a set because someone would inevitably ask him where he learnt to play, and complex shogi manoeuvres couldn't be picked up by Naruto's only reasonable excuse to legitimately learn anything – spying on people playing.

"I wasn't sure if you already had one," Rokuro started, grinning "but you can never have too many shogi boards!"

He held out his hand for Naruto to shake, which he accepted, smiling at his pink-haired friend.

"Mine now! Mine now!" squealed Hanae. Evidently Rokuro was forced to release the hand muffling her mouth to shake Naruto's hand. Both males rolled their eyes and Naruto reached for the other gift, beginning to unwrap it.

"What's this, Hanae-chan?" he asked, genuinely confused by the lidded metal bowl he had lifted out of the box.

Hanae grinned. "This is the newest invention in the ramen industry"

Naruto was hooked at 'ramen.'

"It's like one of those metal thermoses which keep drinks hot, except this one is for ramen!" she declared, waving a fist around in the air which was soon joined enthusiastically by one of Naruto's own.

Rokuro was caught between a bemused smile and a groan at the two ramen addicts.

An hour later the Sake was all gone, Rokuro and Hanae drinking almost all of it between themselves, and Naruto having a few saucers of his own – although not enough to affect him. He managed to escort his two hysterically drunk guests out of the door after they assured him they would be able to make their own way home alright. It was almost eleven at night.

He shut the door and sighed, moving back over to the couches and sitting down on one of them, leaning back and closing his eyes for a moment. He could feel something was wrong though, and saw it when he looked to his left.

Azami was still sitting on the arm of the couch and staring out the window.

"Azami-chan?" he asked cautiously.

"Naruto-kun…" she replied quietly

He moved to sit closer to her.

"Naruto-kun…there's something I have to tell you."

Naruto's breath hitched in his throat. Jiraiya had taught him about those words.

He bit his lip and willed himself to stay strong.

"W-What?"

"I…I have to leave."

He drew a sharp breath and held it for a moment, trying to calm his rapidly beating heart.

"What do you mean 'leave'?"

Azami still hadn't turned to face him.

"I got a letter from my father. He wants me to return tomorrow."

Naruto gave no verbal response, seeing the pain in her eyes and the tear trickling down her cheek. He took her hand with his own and she pulled away.

"That's not all."

His heart beat even faster than before. What was she going to tell him? They wouldn't see each other again? She was interested in someone else? She was in an arranged marriage?

He took her hand again and squeezed it. This time she didn't resist and turned to face him.

"I'm a ninja."

Naruto's eyes widened in shock, yet his heart slowed noticeably from relief.

"You're…a ninja?" he asked, as if testing the words on his tongue.

"I am" she replied, staring into his eyes as another tear rolled down the same cheek. "I know you probably hate me, everyone here would, but that's what I am."

He said nothing as she broke down, instead gathering her into his arms and patting her back, as she clenched his shirt and sobbed into his chest.

Azami was a ninja? Was this a good thing or a bad thing? Was she an enemy or an ally? Or from a neutral village? Or an unknown village? Or no village? Or was she a missing-nin? There were so many things possible. She could be a leaf nin for all he knew. He couldn't say he knew every shinobi in leaf. She was too young to have known about the Kyuubi, and she could have been trained outside the village. No, he couldn't jump to conclusions just yet.

Her sobbing stopped and she released him, dabbing at her eyes with a dry section of his shirt until it was impossible to tell she had been crying. She took a step away from him and looked at him nervously.

He replied the only way he could think of. "I'm a ninja too."

This time is was Azami's turn to be in shock. "Wh-What? You're a shinobi?"

Naruto nodded, and Azami fell backwards onto the couch clutching her head in confusion. Naruto thought she was probably thinking along the same trail as he was before.

"Then why…why are you here?" she asked after a moment.

Naruto smiled at her and got up, walking onto the balcony. Azami followed and stood with him, looking out over the village.

"My sensei took me on a training trip, but when we got here he was called away on official business. He gave me a schedule before he had to leave and I chose to stay here in Sanjuka."

Azami nodded, and Naruto returned the question.

"I was also sent on a training trip, except my father did his best to make sure that I would be sent somewhere I wouldn't run into any ninja. I'm a pretty big target to a number of people." She told him, before turning to him and giving him a sad smile. "I guess the not seeing any ninja part didn't turn out quite like I expected, did it?"

She linked her arm with his.

Naruto was still caught back at the 'pretty big target' part. Could she have been talking about Akatsuki? Was she a Jinchuuriki too?

She turned to him suddenly. "Naruto-kun?"

"Mmm?" he replied, turning to face her.

"What is your real name?"

Naruto chuckled.

"Naruto. It's always been Naruto. Uzumaki Naruto."

Azami nodded and smiled.

"That's a nice name."

Naruto sighed and looked out over the village for a moment, before turning his attention back to the girl next to him.

"What's yours?"

She looked directly into his eyes and gripped his hand.

"Azami. Kurogane Azami."

He nodded, before smiling and giving her hand a tight squeeze.

"What villa –"

She cut him off by placing her lips over his own, and wrapping her arms around him. She pulled away and burried her head into his chest.

"No, don't ask. I don't want to think that we might be enemies one day. That you might have to kill me or –" she choked "I might have to kill you."

Naruto nodded, and rested his chin on the top of her head in silence.

Neither of them knew how long they stood there, it could have been minutes, it could have been hours. Eventually Azami looked up to meet Naruto's eyes.

"Naruto-kun?"

"Azami-chan?"

She reached up to place a kiss on his lips.

"I want to do this before I leave, Naruto-kun." She began, smiling. "I want it to be you."

Naruto simply nodded, a warm smile permanently etched onto his features, before taking her by the arm and leading her towards his bedroom.

"I love you, Kurogane Azami."

"I love you, Uzumaki Naruto."

Naruto reached behind him and shut the door

* * *

**A/N: Now to be honest I really shouldnt have posted this at all. I feel like I'm sneaking around undercover trying to hide this chapter from prying eyes who want to guilt trip me about not studying. Which is ridiculous because those are my eyes, and it's hard to write fanfiction when you arent allowed to know about it. Anyway, my point is I'll try and not update in the next couple of weeks. I know I should be telling you the opposite of that, but hey, at least I'm being honest as to why my updates might be a bit later than usual. And at any rate, you'll know this fic isnt going to be abandoned :P**

**Please review, I love getting all those little "Review Alert" emails. They make my day!**

**Cheers,**

**Lord Bear  
**


	14. The Raikage's Summit

**A/N: Hi! Looks like I succumbed to the call of my fic, despite my approaching exams (Monday, Yikes!). Unfortunately for all you readers, this chapter won't be quite as long as my usual chapters. Despite that, this chapter is very important in the overall context of the story, so don't discount it just yet! I really couldn't fit anything else into this chapter without making it filler or spoiling something anyway.**

**Good news for everyone: I have just made a flow chart of the rest of the story. There will be one chapter after this one before the time-skip and Naruto's return to Konoha (Everyone excited?), and following that, the entire story is mapped out. Previously I only had a definite idea of what I wanted to do before the timeskip, and a few vague ideas for after it. Now, however, my flowchart has 88 post-timeskip boxes, which can be seperated up into 18 arcs/mini-arcs (depending on the contents). It looks like my original estimate of 100,000 words is going to be WAY off. I can see this fic going into the 250,000+ range quite easily. Potentially 300,000+, considering I haven't included anything like catching up with friends when he returns, etc etc.**

**Hopefully I can make it that far!**

**Now, onto my typical important author notes:  
**

**I have fixed a minor continuity issue in Chapter 2 between posting this Chapter and Chapter 13. In chapter 2, Naruto made mention of Tobi being part of Akatsuki and not being able to base any of his style off him. Later in chapter 9 or something, Itachi and Deidara spoke of Tobi being a new member. I deleted the Chapter 2 mention of Tobi, rather than the conversation in Chapter 9. In short, nobody outside of Akatsuki knows of 'Tobi.' I don't think Tobi will feature much in this story at all (appearing only as Madara, instead), and Konoha may never realise he exists (ironically, even though he doesn't)**

**Also, in this fic there is no Kirabi (Killer Bee). The whole rapping thing I find just doesn't fit in with the 'Narutoverse' at all. Also, he would potentially stuff a number of things up.**

**The Raikage in this fic is not the Raikage from the manga/anime. Well...he looks exactly like him, but none of his personality is based off the canon Raikage.**

**That's about it for the moment, if I think of anything else I'll either edit it in or just mention it next Chapter. For now, Heres Chapter 14! Enjoy!  
**

* * *

Naruto awoke to the morning sun shining through the window of his apartment. He smiled to himself, remembering the events of the night before. A stray tear rolled down his cheek as he felt around for the familiar warmth of Azami; his search turning up empty.

'_She's really gone then, huh?'_

Wiping away a second and a third tear that had crept onto his face, he stood, trying to ignore the tightness in his chest. The night before it had seemed so hard to believe that she would be leaving the following morning. It had barely hit him then, feeling as if it were still a lifetime away. His stomach churned and he was forced to clutch onto the bed frame for support, squeezing his eyes shut and trying to reign in his wild emotions. A few minutes later the pain had eased to a dull throb, and he made his way to the shower.

The same questions he'd asked himself the previous night plagued him as he showered. Was she an enemy ninja? Would he have to fight her? Would she be responsible for killing any of his friends? Would he be responsible for killing hers?

There was also the troubling admission she had made about being a big target to some people. She wasn't in his bingo book, so it was unlikely that she was a high profile jounin or something similar. It _had_ to be Akatsuki that was after her. It would explain why she never elaborated on the reason she was being targeted; Jinchuuriki, in his own personal experience, was not a term one would usually admit to being.

If she _was_ a Jinchuuriki, and it _was_ Akatsuki after her, she had to be strong to have avoided capture so far. If she was, she would have known that they existed and were after her, so she would have either been told about them by a high ranking ninja, or have survived an encounter with them. Still, it was possible that she could have been with her village leader or another strong ninja if they attacked, as Jiraiya was with him when Itachi and Kisame attempted to abduct him.

Who would they send after her? From what he knew, Itachi and Kisame were tasked to find him, although they may have been either given another mission or originally had the objective to capture _all_ Jinchuuriki. He knew it wouldn't be beyond their skill either.

The only other team he knew of were Hidan and Kakuzu. They spent almost their entire time collecting bounties and making mass killings, so they weren't exactly the most suitable to be making detours to collect Jinchuuriki. Pein and Konan he could assume worked together, but Jiraiya hadn't been able to confirm it as of yet, considering they hadn't actually seemed to have done anything so far. That left Deidara, Sasori and Zetsu.

Naruto grinned. _'Make that just Deidara and Sasori.'_

Assuming these two worked together rather than separately, they would also be a likely choice to capture a Jinchuuriki. It would make sense that they would be the ones tasked to finding Azami. Kisame and Itachi would be given the most important target, while the others mopped up the rest.

This thought process made him think of Gaara. Who would they send after him? Assumedly Itachi and Kisame wouldn't be an option; kenjutsu and water techniques wouldn't be very effective in the middle of the desert and against Gaara's sand. Their best bet would be to use Kakuzu and Hidan; Hidan's inability to die, and Kakuzu's metal skin would be perfect defences against the sand coffin.

'_Unfortunately, they'll be dead in six months.'_

In that case it would probably be Deidara and Sasori sent after Gaara. He didn't have a plan to deal with them at the moment; taking out three Akatsuki in three years was a huge goal, not to mention that that time period included all the training he had to undergo to become strong enough to fulfil it. He didn't think he would be able to handle any more.

Gaara would just have to take care of himself for the moment.

He only hoped Azami could.

Forcing himself away from such dark thoughts, he dragged himself out of the shower. His head spun as he dressed, emotions vacillating wildly between fear that the Akatsuki would kill her and the pain he felt knowing she had been forced to leave and he would likely never see her again.

As he made his way back into the bedroom, a slight glint caught the corner of his eye. Curious, he walked over to his bedside table and sat on the bed, picking up the item and looking over it, eyes softening as he regarded it.

The item was a rectangular photo frame, set in portrait. It was made almost entirely of a metal which was gleaming without being reflective, leaving a couple of inches of space at the bottom for a stone identical to his necklace to be set; the same stone he had used in Azami's necklace.

The photo itself was one he recognised as being taken on the night of the Ryu Festival by a kind waitress who had offered while their meals were being prepared. He stood in front of the restaurant they had been to, clad in his black suit, white shirt and dark blue tie. Next to him stood Azami, grasping his hand with her own and smiling widely. The deep green dress she had worn on the day looked just as impressive to Naruto now as it did then.

His thumb stretched out to fondly stroke the picture, a smile on his face. In the bottom right corner of the frame was a golden engraving he hadn't seen before. He moved his hand out of the way and read it slowly, soaking in every detail.

_Naruto-kun,_

_For your birthday in the hope that you will_

_never forget me and the time we shared._

_All my love,_

_Azami_

Naruto placed the frame back onto his table carefully, leaning back on his bed and looking out the window.

'_I never will, Azami-chan'_ he swore silently to himself. _'I never will…'_

He fell asleep again with a smile on his face and a tear trickling down his cheek.

* * *

"Leader-sama."

Purple eyes penetrated through the darkness of the room, Pein's glowing orbs the only thing visible from his subordinate's position in the doorway.

"Is there an issue with your orders?"

"No, Leader-sama"

The purple eyes disappeared for a moment as Pein closed them, becoming visible again a few feet above where they were previously. He silently scrutinised the individual from his now standing position.

"Then what is your concern?"

The shinobi in the doorway flinched slightly from the sign of the Rinnengan. From what he knew, none of the Akatsuki had ever seen him in action, so it was a mystery what the eye was capable off. All knew of the legend that was the Sage of Six Paths, though. The power invested in him through his Rinnengan eye allowing him to originally create the first ninjutsu.

"I believe we have a traitor in our midst."

Pein's eyes narrowed, the purple glow of the Rinnengan thinning out into two thin bars of light; not enough to light anything around them, but embedded with enough chakra to make them vividly clear to anyone, regardless of the lighting conditions.

"A traitor, or a spy?"

"I am unsure, Leader-sama. He could be either, or both" the shinobi replied. It was hard to remain speaking this formally, but Pein was unreadable. He could snap and kill him at any moment.

"Who?"

"Uchiha Itachi."

Unseen to his subordinate, Pein creased his brow and assessed his options. He'd noticed Itachi acting odd as of late. Could he still be loyal to Konoha? Perhaps another group? It was troubling to say the least. The biggest questions, however, were whether he knew about Madara, and if he did, whether his loyalties did in fact lie with him.

"I have also had my suspicions" he finally replied.

The shinobi's eyes grew wide for a moment, yet he remained silent.

"Your mission to capture the Five Tails will be postponed" Pein continued. "Your new mission will be to assess the Uchiha's suitability in Akatsuki."

He didn't let surprise show on his face, but internally he was slightly taken aback. Was Pein going to seriously consider his warning? Or was he being moved out of the way for knowing too much?

"Assess?"

Pein looked the ninja up and down. "You will shadow all of his actions, recording everything he does. You will report to me every two months, or as often as you are within the base. If your research is conclusive, you will present a full report to me at such a time; otherwise you will continue this mission for one year. Itachi is one of the most important pieces in my plan; I cannot afford to lose his services as I lost Orochimaru's"

"Hai, Leader-sama."

Pein nodded, and his subordinate turned on his heel, leaving the room and closing the door behind him. The shinobi smirked.

'_One of these days, Uchiha, I will destroy you. You will pay for bringing me here. One of these days I'll introduce you to my ultimate art, un.'_

* * *

The next six months could only be described as hectic for Naruto. He trained almost exclusively, only visiting the shogi parlour once every few days instead of every one or two as he had in the past. He met almost all of the goals he had set out for himself as well, something his was very proud of. His genjutsu was acceptable now, somewhere around mid-chuunin despite his weakness in that field in the past.

His speed had met and surpassed his expectations. The training weights he had on weren't nearly as heavy as the ones Lee and Gai used, but they were effective enough for him. If it weren't for the Kyuubi's influence on his muscles, he would have had a lot more difficulty using them. As it was, he adapted nicely to them, although he wasn't nearly as confident about using them while fighting as Lee and Gai were. Fortunately, another side effect of the Kyuubi being sealed into him stopped his muscles from atrophying during periods of inactivity, allowing him to leave them back home when he went out on missions without suffering side effects from decreased muscle use. He planned to continue this method of weight training after he returned to Konoha.

His taijutsu style had developed reasonably well from what he could gather. The use of the wind channelers on his gloves made up for any deficiencies when fighting hand to hand. It wasn't a common tactic, especially not in Konoha, and if he didn't activate it initially, he would have the element of surprise when he finally did pull it out as an ace.

Only a few more jutsu had been added to his arsenal, the most notable of which being the _Bunshin Daibakuha_ and the _Raiton: Jibashi no jutsu_. The first of these he had learnt as an alternative to his idea for using the _Rasenshuriken_ with clones as a suicide technique, but it hadn't turned out quite as he'd hoped. The blast radius had only been a few metres, whereas the _Rasenshuriken_ covered more than twenty – enough to take out a structure or the side of a building.

Unfortunately, his progress with the _Rasenshuriken_ seemed to have gone backwards. He was able to create it himself fine; using the chakra-exhausting wind shield he had developed to protect his palm. He was even finally able to make it without the use of a clone. The problem was his clones could no longer create it themselves. He had no idea why that was the case – being able to do it easily before, although admittedly a little underpowered – yet even when he joined in to help spin the chakra, the clone could never get it to work. It seemed that it was either by himself or not at all for the moment.

His sole _Raiton_ technique had taken him the longest to learn out of all of them. Sixteen months to be precise. Lightning techniques just didn't seem to want to work for him. No matter what he did, they would either fizzle out completely or deal him a heavy electric shock. He assumed it was something to do with the speed at which lightning dissipates, making it require greater chakra control, but beyond that he honestly had no idea. The _Jibashi_ had taken every ounce of concentration to master, but in the end he'd done it. There wasn't really any need for another technique of its type; the only way he could see himself using any was in a combination attack with water. In that case the _Jibashi_ would be plenty.

Most of his work in the past few weeks had been on the sealing front. The two scrolls he had lifted from Orochimaru's office had been alarming to say the least. Having mastered everything Jiraiya left for him about seals months ago, he set about disassembling the cursed seal of heaven from the vague notes Orochimaru had made. What he discovered shocked him.

The seal could be divided into three main parts. The first was the power boost, which he had seen Sasuke, Kimimaro and the Sound Four use. He wasn't sure exactly how that worked, but hadn't bothered to completely dissect that part of the seal; knowing it didn't serve any other function was enough to satisfy him for the moment.

The second function was to leave the ability to implant his own consciousness into someone with the cursed seal, on the chance that something happened to him. This didn't have any effect unless Orochimaru deliberately implanted himself into the seal ninja from what he could tell, although if he had, it would allow him to eventually take over the ninja's body with enough power.

The third and final function came into play only after Orochimaru died. Both his soul and body had to be dead, so it wouldn't activate if he was using the second function. Once he died, the seal would poison the ninja's mind, slowly driving the person insane as a final spite from beyond the grave. It could have been a form of security to stop his ninja from betraying him, but it wasn't likely that he had told anyone; they would have left him immediately if they knew he had tied their deaths to his own.

Naruto's breath hitched in his throat as he sat at the table reading over his notes. _'What about Sasuke? Crazy snake lady? They both have the cursed seal. That means they will go insane if Orochimaru is killed too!'_

He couldn't let that happen. He _wouldn't_ let that happen. To officially quality for seal master status you had to complete a unique, self-chosen study on a specific seal or concept, ending up with some sort of original creation from it. For his he would find away to remove the cursed seal. If not remove it entirely, then at least nullify its second and third components. The assessment was administered in a temple in Bird Country, so he would be able to work on it while he was training in Takigakure; waiting to earn it officially on his return trip to Konoha.

The complex seal detailed in the second scroll he had found alongside the one on Orochimaru's cursed seal was critical to him. His heart thumped in his chest every time he saw it, but he needed it, and he needed to know everything he could about it. He couldn't reach his goals if he didn't; and he had promised to achieve his goals.

Uzumaki Naruto never breaks a promise.

For now he had preparations to make. Picking up the scroll, sealing brush and inkpot, he made his way to his bedroom, pulling down the blind on the window and shutting the door for security from any prying eyes.

That night, he would leave to hunt Akatsuki.

* * *

"Raikage-sama."

The Raikage turned a curious glance over his shoulder, identifying the speaker and returning his gaze over the balcony he rested on. He did not reply straight away, instead watching the clouds drift past below him absently.

The Raikage's Summit was only accessible to himself and very few of his most trusted allies. The platform itself was made almost entirely of marble, slightly smaller than two average training grounds side by side. Nothing stood atop it, save for a vaguely rectangular structure, supported by cylindrical marble columns in regal fashion. The summit floated high above the clouds, held up by some unseen force, as did the steps accessing it.

Almost none in Kumo knew of the Summit's existence. The Raikage had built it himself over the last ten years of his reign. It had been difficult producing such an extensive and previously unheard of structure; many of his materials had to be personally ordered from Iwagakure to prevent Kumogakure becoming suspicious. Not only the marble either, a good deal of other precious stones were required to support it. The Raikage himself was a seal master; the Summit was his theoretical masterpiece, submitted to gain his mastery. Many of the seals required could only fuse with particular rocks. Rocks which could only be acquired in the abrasive terrain of Earth Country.

"Danzo-san."

Danzo made no reply, instead moving to join the Raikage on his left side, his eyes drifting out over the edge of the platform.

"Will your Root be in place?"

"The Roots cannot be removed without destroying the tree."

The Raikage smirked, but remained focused on some distant point in the aether surrounding them.

"Then the Hokage will not interfere?"

Danzo remained emotionless. To show emotion was a weakness. Root knew this and Danzo knew this.

"No. She is aware of my ambition, I believe, as well as the fact that I have temporarily sought asylum outside Konoha; however she will not endeavour to remove the Root."

"No? And why is that?"

"Root will continue as they have for years. I have left orders and still have means to relay communications to my forces despite being away from Konoha. Eliminating Root would be a dangerous move – the contributions they make to Konoha's defences and economy are significant to say the least."

The Raikage turned his head to regard Danzo, raising an eyebrow slightly in curiosity.

"You don't believe she will attempt to slowly eliminate your shinobi? It would cut down the number of enemies she will have to face in the future without making such a large impact."

Danzo seemed faintly amused; an emotion not subject to the scrutiny he placed on almost all others. Amusement could be used to goad enemies, as well as for intimidation. On the political front, it could be the most powerful weapon in his arsenal. Amusement could show confidence without visible arrogance, yet still insinuate that a specific group or individual was inferior, subordinate or easily manipulated.

"I never said she would not. It is clear that she will. Tsunade is nothing if not predictable. I have informed my forces that such an attempt is almost a certainty and ensured they will be prepared."

"They will fight back or they will evacuate? A civil war is not an option currently, Danzo, you know that too well" was the reply; a frown crossing the Raikage's features.

Danzo gave a short chuckle. "No. They will accept it."

The Raikage's eyebrow arched even higher than before, and he couldn't help but be impressed.

"You will allow your shinobi to sacrifice themselves in that way?"

"A shinobi is a tool" Danzo replied gruffly, turning away to once again stare into the distance. "It is to our advantage that Tsunade believes she has decreased the risk we pose to her. She will choose specific targets to eliminate, believing herself to have cut important chains of command which, without my presence, would cause Root to collapse. I have given particular shinobi orders to ensure they will be identified as holding these positions, and to accept their sacrifice when the time comes."

"Then they are truly emotionless?" The Raikage asked.

Danzo smirked. "Hai. The perfect tool."

"The perfect tool indeed."

They settled into a comfortable silence, eyes glazed over as their gaze drifted over the yellow clouds Kumogakure was named for.

When the time came, they would stand side-by-side atop the summit and rule their forces; marching them against one another, towards The Greatest Shinobi War.

* * *

**A/N: Any Code Geass fans out there? If there are you probably recognised the Raikage's Summit. Its modelled to look exactly like the Sword of Akasha (if you've never seen Code Geass, Google image search: "Sword of Akasha" for a more vivid idea of what it looks like). The Summit/Sword similarities end there, however; the Summit has none of the functions or powers that the Sword of Akasha does. The Raikage built it because he feels himself to be a God, far above his people in divine aether.**

**You may also have noticed, if you watch Code Geass, that the Raikage bears a strong personality resemblence to Charles. Again, you would be right. I deliberately modelled the Raikage after Charles Di Britannia. Keep in in mind that this is NOT a crossover and never will be. The Raikage will remain the Raikage, and he is not ACTUALLY Charles Di Britannia. He also won't have a geass (neither will anyone else), and the Summit will not function in any way like the Sword of Akasha. Sorry to disappoint anyone who was excited about the possibility of a crossover :P**

**Although I do think it would be a great concept (just the geass power, not the characters...well...maybe CC and VV), I already have The Greatest Shinobi War on my plate. Even when I finish this, I will be working on the sequel**

**Yes, you heard me right.**

**The Sequel.**

**There will be one eventually, and I already have a few ideas for it. Nowhere near the number of ideas I have for this, however; still, I've got plenty of time to come up with some.  
**

**Anyway, I've spent enough time writing this instead of studying (I wasted the entire day writing and planning :S), so I'd better just post it and go to sleep so I can wake up in time to get a decent number of hours work in tomorrow. I hopefully won't update before November 4th (my confirmed last exam), but I realise by now that no matter how many times I say it, I'll probably end up writing something anyway. Please review regardless of what you thought of it! I still manage to reply to every review which directly addresses an element of the story!**

**Cheers,**

**Lord Bear  
**

_Bunshin Daibakuha _– Great Clone Explosion

_Raiton: Jibashi no Jutsu_ – Lightning Release: Electromagnetic Murder Technique


	15. The Massacre of Tanoshimigakure

**A/N: Hi! I'm finally back for another upload. Sheesh its been what, three weeks or something? I feel like I've completely neglected this fic. No matter; all my exams are done (except for one negligible year 11 one), so I'm basically on holidays and am free to write as much as I want to! Originally I had said that this would be the last chapter before Naruto returns to Konoha, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to change that. This chapter ran WAY over the word count i was expecting (about 5,000 all up), so I've decided to split it into two sections. Naruto will now return to Konoha in Chapter 17 (sorry to everyone who anticipating it. But hey, you get another full Chapter that was never going to exist!)**

**A few notes this Chapter:**

**1. Naruto's Apprenticeship in Takigakure - Sorry to everyone who was eager to see this, but I honestly can't come up with anything worthwhile to write in it. It will be mostly pure training (slash this 300 times, run this many laps, spar with sensei for half an hour, etc). I may have a few flashbacks to that time though; I have a creative way to accomplish that :)**

**2. Discrepancies between this fic and Canon - This fic isn't AU, but there are a few slight tweaks to Canon. The ones I can think of off the top of my head are: Kakashi having a greater interest in Naruto's training (shogi, etc), Ukon/Sakon, Kidomaru and Tayuya surviving, and Konoha having more information on Akatsuki (basically Jiraiya having more information on Akatsuki).**

**3. Sasuke**** - When I mentioned Orochimaru holding him back, I didn't mean that there would be a huge difference between Canon Sasuke's powers and my Sasuke's powers. Its a combination of being slightly less powerful than Canon, and the likelihood that Canon Orochimaru also held Sasuke back deliberately. Regardless, Sasuke is still weaker than Naruto, but can keep up with him (without Hiraishin). Sasuke fought Naruto to a standstill because Naruto was still weakened from Zetsu, Naruto couldn't really use Rasenshuriken or any other massively destructive ninjutsu without killing his friend, and he hadn't tested Hiraishin yet. **

**4. Time-line - Jiraiya is back in Konoha, having worked out the kinks in his spy network. Naruto's training trip will run three or four months overtime considering Jiraiya told him he'd "see him back in Konoha in three years" in Chapter One, when they were already eleven weeks into the trip.**

**5. Naruto's Gloves - Naruto's gloves will not impair his chakra flow, so he will still be able to use the Rasengan while wearing it. It won't help with the Rasengan or anything, though.  
**

**Sorry about all the Author Notes; it's been ages since I've updated, so I've had plenty of time to think of things I needed to say lol**

**Here's Chapter 15! Enjoy!**

* * *

Naruto crouched beside a telegraph pole on the side of the road, observing the two ninja standing outside the small building opposite him. They had been there for an hour; their teammate being the one to actually enter the station while they stood guard. Naruto had been there when they arrived, about to cross and enter himself. Fortunately he had pulled back just in time to avoid them, the cover of nightfall protecting him from being seen.

The insignia on the ninja's hitai-ate was unmarred save for a few indents from battle, having evidently performed its function as a forehead protector adequately, for the ninja was still walking. It was not, however, marred by the deep horizontal slash identifying a missing ninja, which was a surprise in itself; not many village-bound shinobi would be permitted by their village leader to enter such an establishment.

The one who entered the building was most likely designated team leader, and had been given a scroll by each of his teammates when they arrived. It was likely that they had been split up and had met recently. Either that or they wanted to hedge their bets in case one or more of them was attacked.

For all the maturing Naruto was forced to do in order to get the most out of his training trip, standing still for more than an hour wasn't something he could bring himself to do if he didn't have to. The two outside barely spoke to each other, preferring to stand guard back to back with a few feet between them. Silently, Naruto sunk into the earth at the base of the telegraph pole and began to move towards the building.

It had taken him a good deal of effort to learn how to perform jutsu without speaking their names or using handseals, as well as a hefty chunk of time out of his training schedule. The rewards were well worth it though; having for all intents and purposes perfected a few key techniques so that they would be useable in this manner.

His _Hiru Bansho no jutsu_, _Kanashibari no jutsu_ and_Doton: Shinjū Zanshu no Jutsu_ were his key focuses for training seal-less and silent techniques, considering they were almost always used in a reconnaissance or assassination scenario, and any noise made by speech or hand seals would be easily detectable by a well-trained shinobi. All three of those had been mastered comfortably, given time, and were no more difficult for him to perform than they would be with seals or if he did announce the technique. Save for a slight increase in the amount of chakra consumed, there was little to no difference between the two; the Kyuubi's influence giving him easily large enough chakra reserves for the discrepancy to be negligible.

He had achieved mixed results attempting the same strategy using _Doton: Iwagakure no jutsu_ and_ Doton: Dochū Eigyo no jutsu_, having tacked his training in them on as an afterthought, filling up the gap his schedule allowed after completing the training in the other three faster than he had expected. Both jutsu would work four times out of five, which, while still better than he had expected to be able to do at this time, wasn't enough to risk using them against an enemy. His first choice would be either the _Hiru Bansho_ or the _Doton: Shinjū Zanshu_, although if necessary, he was perfectly proficient in using them with just handseals.

All other jutsu were off-limits to seal-less use at the moment, especially offensive techniques. His first attempt at a _Suiryūdan_ was a complete failure, creating little more than a puddle. A dragon-shaped puddle, maybe, but conversely also a puddle-sized dragon. He was glad Kakashi and Sakura weren't around to see that. His first guess was that he wasn't channelling enough chakra, but he quickly discounted that theory, knowing that he had learnt the _Rasengan_ without hand seals, so there was no reason for him to be less than adequate at channelling chakra without seals.

The only other theory he could think of was that while he was fine releasing the quantity of chakra necessary (to an extent), he hadn't gotten the hang of the 'shape' the chakra needed to take. Kakashi's notes explained that hand seals filtered the chakra into the form needed for the technique, which meant that if he didn't use seals, he would have to force the chakra into the required form without aid.

With enough practice, he'd been able to memorise the 'shapes' of each of the techniques he had trained with. He was sure that there was a better way to do it, but without being specifically taught how to do it, the only option available was to use the chakra equivalent of muscle memory to learn them until he could perform it without thinking.

Offensive jutsu required much more complex patterns than the few he had learnt, which were almost exclusively used on one's self, save for the _Kanashibari_, which was little more than pure killing intent. Because of this, it was far more difficult to ensure that all the chakra being expanded matched up with where it was supposed to end up for the jutsu; his _Suiryūdan_ receiving a little less than a tenth of the total chakra it should have been. Unfortunately for Naruto, the process was somewhat more complicated than shoving it all into the shape of a dragon and hoping for the best.

If he was unable to control a water jutsu, he certainly didn't want to test his luck on one of the volatile _f__ū__ton_ techniques, nor on those from the _katon_ and _raiton_ varieties; he didn't fancy having his throat scorched or his nervous system fried from a backfiring jutsu.

Naruto emerged slightly in a darkened corner inside the building; his head the only part of his body exposed, yet still concealed by the lack of light. Two people were in the far corner of the room he estimated to be slightly larger than the Hokage's office. One wore a similar outfit to the two shinobi outside, save for a jounin flak jacket, as opposed to the other two who had evidently either decided to forgo the vest, or never reached chuunin level. From what he had seen of their attitudes and stances when he observed them outside, both looked to be chuunin level at least. Then again he was hardly as low as chuunin level himself, and was technically a gennin for the moment.

The other man was dressed a long white laboratory coat which extended down to mid-calf, and was cut to have a high collar. He had thick dark eyebrows which could have given Lee and Gai's a run for their money, and a moustache which was kept in similar fashion. His right cheek had a short scar close to his ear, and his bald skull was adorned with a deep diagonal scar covering his entire forehead. Twin perpendicular scars of equal depth but shorter length crossed the horrific scar through its centre.

The scarred man let loose a sharp and not entirely sane-sounding chuckle. "Only these three today, shinobi-san?" he asked curiously.

"Our orders were absolute," the shinobi replied without batting an eyebrow, clearly nonplussed by the searching question made by the man in front of him. "It was to be these three only."

"Then your village intends to cease collecting bounty funds?" he replied with a grimace. "Pity, I was getting such good business from Amegakure up until now."

"Our orders were absolute," was the generic reply offered by the Ame-nin, prompting another curious glance from the operator of the bounty station.

"I am not privy to Pein-sama's plans," he offered with some hesitation. "His decisions are his own."

'_Pein-sama? Pein of Akatsuki? He's operating out of Amegakure?'_ Naruto questioned internally, his head sinking back into the floor. _'This is bad…'_

The scarred station operator narrowed his eyes dangerously at the shinobi, causing him to stiffen visibly and a thin layer of sweat to gloss his uncovered face.

"Do you mean to suggest that his ideals are not your own?" he began in a false kindly voice, edging closer to the teenage Ame-nin, who placed a foot behind him to steady himself.

"N-no…of course not…I just…j-just…" the shinobi stammered, sweating heavily at the man's implications

Naruto, having moved to a more comfortable position in the wall, allowed his head to protrude at a level which would make it easier to understand their conversation. _'He's not a mindless shinobi. He's not a tool,'_ he thought bitterly, his mind bringing up images of Haku and Zabuza, and brief flashes of the conversation he'd had with Haku in the clearing of Wave Country. _'He's afraid of Pein. Does he have precious people in Amegakure he has to protect by becoming Pein's tool? No, I can't kill him. I won't kill someone like that.'_

"Then his _choices_ are your own." The bounty manager stated seriously, leaving no room for argument. The shinobi gulped, and the man continued. "Fortunately for you, I am not in the business of selling people out. Pein may have been a good client since he brought in Hanzō, but if he no longer requires the number of bounties he has been delivering recently, I see no reason to offer any more loyalty than my line of work demands of me.

The Ame-nin let out a breath of air he hadn't realised he had been holding, while Naruto eyes widened and his heart-rate increased to almost match that of the shinobi in front of him previously. _'Hanzō? He killed Salamander Hanzō? He is strong; much stronger than I thought. This means he is in complete control of Amegakure. At least with Hanzō we didn't know which side he would take; he certainly respected the Sannin and Konoha still has two of them. Now That Akatsuki are involved, we can at least be sure they won't side with us. They may not side with Otogakure and Kumogakure either; if they entered the war it would only to cripple both sides.'_

Walking down the rows of cadaver drawers, the bounty manager slammed each one shut individually, before returning to the Ame-nin and withdrawing a steel briefcase from a hidden compartment in the wall. The shinobi accepted it and walked over to a small table, where he immediately began to count the money. He was watched carefully by the scarred man to make sure he wasn't going to steal any and claim he never received it, but not obviously so. He was evidently used to his clients' paranoia.

"I trust everything is as expected?"

"Hai." The Ame-nin replied, closing the briefcase and fastening both clasps. "I will leave now."

The scarred man nodded, and the shinobi turned and walked briskly towards the exit. Naruto submerged himself again, pumping slightly more chakra into the _Hiru Bansho_ to sustain its movement, and he followed inside the wall next to the shinobi. As the team rendezvoused outside, he stepped out of the wall in the shadows around the corner. It didn't require any chakra to use the technique when the user was stationary, only when it is being used to move through material, so his chakra reserves were barely scraped from usage. Once he was sure that the Rain shinobi had left, he waited ten minutes before re-entering the bounty station.

"My, my…business _is_ good today," the bounty manager chuckled, not bothering to hide a creepy grin, skewed by years in the industry.

"Hai, I'm looking for a hit." Naruto replied stoically, a serious façade in place to show he wasn't going to waste the man's time.

"You want to take one out on someone?" the man asked greedily, rubbing his hands together at the prospect of his cut of an expensive contract.

"No, I want one from your book."

The man's fervour dropped slightly, but a complete contract would still bring in money, despite it not adding to the pool of potential bounties.

"Then please, by all means take a look" he offered, smiling in a way that made Naruto want to just knock the bastard out already.

He lifted a book off the back table and handed it to Naruto, raising an eyebrow when he flipped directly to the back of the book where the heavy bounties were kept.

"You sure you want one of them, kid? No point killing yourself just yet. Do two of the middle-ranged ones to get some experience." He suggested, not wanting to lose a potential contract worker because they were too ambitious.

Naruto made no reply, trying to keep up the silent, dangerous persona; or as he liked to call it, 'Sasuke mode.' It became increasingly difficult to do so after a few minutes of pointing out the highest paying bounties and asking for more information, while the man reluctantly described the parameters of each one and advised him against it, occasionally suggesting a different one. With every passing second Naruto wanted more and more to give into temptation and just kick the guy, maybe hitting him with a low powered _Rasengan_ for good measure. Finally he got some useful information from the seventh highest ranking bounty.

"Sorry kid, you'll never get this one" he chuckled, taking the book out of Naruto's hands and flipping back in search of a bounty to recommend.

Naruto's eyebrows rose slightly. "Why not?"

"You'll never get there in time, my best agent is bringing that one in" he gloated, taking a good deal of pride in his clear favourite contract worker.

This perked Naruto's attention. It was very likely that he was referring to Kakuzu as his 'best agent.' Kakuzu certainly had the skill to complete the top bounties, and from the information Jiraiya had left about the Akatsuki, he had the lust for money to collect them too. It was slightly disconcerting that the man had said 'best agent' and not 'best agents,' but that probably just meant that Hidan didn't accompany him into the station to collect them.

"Tell me about it anyway."

The man sighed. "If you wish. The hit is on the population of a small bandit village called _Tanoshimigakure_ which fashions itself as a hidden village, and has been known to raid other nearby villages. The population is over two thousand. It is in neutral territory a few miles west of here, just outside both sound and fire countries." he explained. "I'm telling you though; he left a few hours ago so you'll never make it in time."

'_Two thousand people?'_ Naruto repeated in his head, feeling slightly sick that such a slaughter could be ordered._ 'It makes sense I guess, Kakuzu gets his bounty, and Hidan gets his sacrifices.'_ There was no longer any doubt it was Hidan and Kakuzu who were planning to claim the bounty, and to make things even better, they were only a few hours ahead of him. If he was fast he would arrive with plenty of time before he could make his move.

Naruto reached forward and pulled the book out of the man's hand, ignoring his protest and turning back to the relevant page. He quickly memorised the information and gave the book back. There was no point stealing it or tearing out the Konoha pages, as the bounty station bingo books were almost all identical and included every bounty in the elemental nations, as opposed to the village bingo books which only included shinobi from other villages. Bounty stations weren't difficult to infiltrate anyway, so it wasn't any trouble for the Hokage to get a copy of the book if she didn't have one already, although Naruto assumed she did.

Satisfied that he had all the information he needed from the station, his fist snaked out and slammed into the man's face. His nose didn't break, indicating that he received this treatment regularly, although he did fall unconscious. Naruto smirked; he'd wanted to do that since he got there.

* * *

"Tsunade-sama! Ero-sennin! A courier ninja arrived with this parcel addressed to the Hokage" Shizune announced, walking through the door carrying a stack of paperwork with a brown envelope sitting atop it.

Tsunade groaned from the extra paperwork, having barely caught up from the aftermath of destroying a few stacks in an attempt to skive working.

Jiraiya had developed a large tick on his forehead. "You too?!" he yelled, fist clenching as he fantasised about what he would do to Naruto when he came back. "I am the great Jiraiya-sama!"

Shizune giggled as she placed the paperwork on the table, and handed the envelope to Tsunade. "Not to little Naruto-chan, you're not."

"Naruto-chan? I swear…when I get my hands on that gaki…"

"Baka," Tsunade said absentmindedly, rolling her eyes but foregoing his traditional flattening. She opened the envelope and began to read the contents, ignoring Jiraiya's protests and descriptions of how he would torture his apprentice when he returned, including refusing to train him until Gai could "re-ignite his youthful passion" which prompted Shizune to shiver.

"Jiraiya…I think you need to read this."

Jiraiya stopped his rant and moved to Tsunade's side, placing a comforting hand on her left shoulder in case the contents were upsetting. His eyes widened in surprise as he read the document.

"This is –"

"– a treaty between Otogakure and Kumogakure." Tsunade finished for him, not removing her gaze.

"Who sent this?" He snapped, suspicion overriding panic for the moment.

Tsunade felt around inside the envelope for a letter, but her search came up empty. "They didn't leave a name."

Jiraiya let it slide for the moment, as it didn't seem to be affecting Tsunade as she held it, and she would know better than anyone if it did; her medic training allowing her to detect even the most miniscule of threats to her body. He pulled up a chair and sat next to her.

"This isn't good. We knew Kumo and Iwa would side with Oto if they either of the two decided to participate in the war, and we knew Danzo's root had something to do with Kumo, but this is a full treaty of alliance. If Kumo goes to war, Oto goes to war. If Oto goes to war, Kumo goes to war. There are no shades of grey."

Tsunade slammed her fist into her desk, not channelling any chakra to avoid damaging it. "I know. That puts us and Sunagakure up against Kumogakure, Otogakure, Iwagakure and potentially Root in the war. Akatsuki are wild cards, they could attack anyone at any point, but we can at least be certain they won't side with us."

Jiraiya nodded. "Those aren't good odds" he intoned, staring at the far wall as he went over what he knew in his head.

"You're damn right they aren't good odds!" Tsunade shouted. "That's why we have to make them better. Root are too much of a risk at the moment. If our shinobi can make sacrifices, so can our villagers. Jiraiya, I want profiles of the ten most prominent Root members on my desk tomorrow morning to be given out as ANBU assassination targets. Shizune, I want you to draft up paperwork to limit the amount we spent on luxury imports. Eliminating key root members will damage our economy, so we need to compensate, and for once it won't be by taking shortcuts with our ninjas' safety."

Jiraiya nodded sharply in accord with Tsunade's plan, while Shizune slowly inclined her head, astounded that Tsunade had, for the first time, requested more paperwork. Jiraiya stood and left the room with Shizune. As soon as the door had closed behind them, Tsunade slumped in her chair and let her head hit the desk in front of her.

"Why did I let that gaki talk me into this job?"

* * *

Naruto watched the two Akatsuki members work from his place on the roof of a nearby building, a hand over his stomach to steady himself. They were monsters; over three quarters of the population had been slaughtered, and they weren't taking pains to make those deaths quick and painless either. That being said, they were meticulous about their work, ensuring that every person was killed before they could scream and alert their allies.

Hidan did most of the work, leaping around and slinging his scythe in every direction to puncture the bandit's bodies in different ways, never making the same kill twice. He grinned as he spun, letting out a sharp laugh when he put the scythe through the back of a retreating bandit or through the centre of the face of one who attempted to fight back.

Kakuzu stood to the side using the _Jiongu_ to detach his hands at the wrist and use them to play cleanup duty, thrusting the entire fist through the torso of any who tried to escape; the exact same kill every time. Evidently Kakuzu didn't care for theatrics, focusing on results through tried and tested methods. He was not the kind of enemy you could count on to give you openings when attempting complex and exotic manoeuvres, nor was he the type to gloat when you were down and give you an opportunity to recuperate. _'If I'm not careful, I'll be dead within seconds.'_

For another fourty minutes, Naruto trailed the pair through the town from a distance, sometimes hiding in the shadows of rooftops, and sometimes using the _Hiru Bansho_ when he didn't have an option or he needed to be closer. He was able to get a feel for the basics of Kakuzu's fighting style, for he knew that the ability to detach his hands was barely scraping the surface of his technique. Still, Naruto could discern patterns of movement Kakuzu would subconsciously use when dealing with projectiles; for as long as he had been a Gennin, Naruto had won almost every fight he'd been in by using his _Kage Bunshin_ to pick these nuances up.

He'd managed to briefly attempt to pick Hidan's technique apart, but it seemed to be just jumping in as many different directions as possible and covering every square inch of airspace in the vicinity with slashes from his scythe. His accuracy was horrible, but his style was both unpredictable and it made him hard to hit, not that it mattered if he was. Naruto had no plans to fight Hidan for an extended period of time, but he needed to stay alive long enough to kill him, as daunting as the task seemed.

As he watched, he became gradually more disgusted. Not in the killing, but in himself. After an hour of watching them, he found that he barely cared anymore, being desensitised to the slaughter at an alarming rate. More than once he had caught himself from emptying his stomach at that thought, but that would alert the two shinobi in front of him in a heartbeat; the only reason they hadn't caught him yet being that they were so confident in their ability to completely annihilate the town piece by piece without survivors, that they would never think they needed to pay any attention to the ground behind them.

Still, no matter how much Naruto hated a slaughter such as this, he could help but agree with the principles behind it. These people deserved what they got. The bounty in the station-keeper's book spoke of their exploits in a far less than flattering light. Murdering civilian shop owners in their stores, raping children in playgrounds, mutilating mothers in front of their screaming families. Many times he found himself silently cheering on Hidan as he made a particularly brutal kill, taking solace in the fact that he would never wish that sort of death on anyone but the lowest of the low. If the target wasn't who it was, he knew that he would have stepped out to confront them by now; it would have been worth the added risk.

A further ten minutes later and they appeared to have finished. Naruto glanced backward at the rest of the makeshift village. Most of the accommodation had been in the form of tents, although they had evidently developed a semi-permanent sewage and water system of some sort. Clearly this was never a permanent home for them, although Kakuzu and Hidan had turned it into one for some cash and a few religious offerings.

"That the last of these fuckers, Kakuzu?"

"I didn't miss any."

Naruto watched from his position inside a stone structure which was evidently used as a communal bathroom. Now that the two Akatsuki members had finished and were less alert, he had allowed himself to move up much closer to them in preparation to make his move. At the present time he was a little more than twenty feet away from them.

Hidan slowly turned and surveyed the bodies strewn around the makeshift streets, hanging limply off tables, stacks of equipment and the few buildings which had been erected by the bandits. He grinned to himself and walked away from Kakuzu, who made no move to follow, and found a clear patch of concrete.

Burying one of his scythe blades in his right thigh, he bent over slightly to allow a steady stream of blood to drain out of his leg. When he had evidently decided that he had released enough, he stood up to his full height once again and began to paint a symbol on the ground by smearing the blood around with his foot.

Naruto was stunned at what he'd seen. _'His pain-tolerance is so high; he willingly put that blade through one side of leg and out the other. He didn't even make a noise! And that symbol…what is it? Is it something to do with his rituals? I know the ritual to give his God sacrifices would take a while, but I don't know how it actually works.'_

Kakuzu watched apathetically, his boredom thinly disguised as he calculated the final figure of the bounty based on a price per head. His back was to Naruto, who remained completely hidden inside the wall; the bright morning light would have given him away in an instant, had he emerged. Hidan, having finished drawing his symbol, lay down in it, and extended a long metal rod, softly chanting words that no one besides him was able to make out.

Neither Kakuzu nor Naruto moved as Hidan initiated what was obviously his ritual, and after a few minutes he had completed it. His skinned turned black, and thick white stripes extended all over his body as if they were mapping his skeletal system, prompting a raised eyebrow from Naruto; there was no longer any doubt he was preparing for his sacrificial ritual. Seconds after he finished, he began to spin his pike, completing three full rotations before driving it straight through his heart.

Naruto wanted to heave at the sight, despite knowing that Hidan was immortal. Seeing someone impale themselves as casually as they would sit down on a bench was a sickening display. Still, if he did, Kakuzu was even more likely to spot him.

"Hidan." Kakuzu's voice was cold and emotionless, and his facial expressions did not change as he spoke; although to be fair they were mostly obscured by a veil.

"What the fuck do you want, Kakuzu?" the living voodoo doll began. "Can't you see I'm trying to do my ritual, asshole?"

"Hidan," Kakuzu repeated. "You forgot to check the area for anyone who may have survived."

"Why the fuck does it matter? If there is anyone, you kill them. I'm fucking busy."

Kakuzu stared at his partner for a moment before replying. "Because each of these heads is worth twenty-three ryō. I plan on being paid for my hard work."

"Tch." Hidan snorted, turning his head away for a moment. "You and your goddamn money, Kakuzu. And what this 'my hard work' bullshit? I'm the one who did all the hard work, you just stood there!"

Kakuzu made no reply, instead turning and beginning to walk away from Hidan. A few feet later he stopped abruptly, and he snapped his head directly in Naruto's direction, drawing back a fist and charging at his hiding place in the wall faster than Naruto had seen even Jiraiya move.

'_Kuso, he can track chakra signatures too!'_ Naruto cursed inwardly, eyes wide from the shock of Kakuzu's speed, as he retreated backwards through the wall using his _Hiru Bansho_. He resurfaced on the roof of the building just in time to see Kakuzu's fist slam through the wall and kick up a cloud of smoke. The building began to topple just as he fully emerged, forcing Naruto to abandon his footing and leap backwards. He turned to the side as he arced into a back flip, retrieving a kunai from his leg holster in time to swipe away two metallic threads snaking out from Kakuzu's arm, the Akatsuki shinobi having jumped off the roof in pursuit of him.

Landing on the road he had been overlooking previously, Naruto slammed his palm onto the ground to slow him down as he skidded backwards. Kakuzu landed after him and jumped in the other direction, mimicking Naruto's actions and ending further down the road, closer to Hidan.

"Who are you?" Kakuzu asked in a monotone, drawing a kunai and moving into a guard position.

"Uzumaki Naruto" Naruto replied with a grin; he'd been preparing for this fight for almost two years.

Kakuzu stared at him for a moment, before his eyes widened and his cheekbones rose, showing that he was hiding a feral grin under his veil. Naruto could almost see the ryō signs lighting up in the Takigakure Nuke-nin's red and green eyes, mutated by use of the forbidden _Jiongu_.

"So it was _you_ who killed Zetsu?"

Naruto made no move to reply, instead smirking and lifting his kunai into his own guard position.

The Akatsuki member let out a soft chuckle. "I see how it is. You plan to kill us one by one."

"Yeah. I'm going to kill every last one of you!" Naruto declared, tightening his grip on the kunai and pumping the arm holding it.

Kakuzu didn't take the bait, and continued. "So that's why you had planned on waiting for Hidan to begin his ritual before you made your move, then" he deduced, seemingly amused. He looked up at Naruto with a maniacal gleam in his eye.

"But what you didn't realise, is that I'm _far_ more powerful than Zetsu ever was."

* * *

**A/N: Well that's another 5,000 words down; I had taken a break to read a bunch of stories after exams (winding down and all), but became bored rather quickly (I've read most of the good ones lol). The next chapter will (as pretty much every single one of you will have guessed) contain the Kakuzu and Hidan fights! After that its back to Konoha (Unless I kill off Naruto when he fights Kakuzu...hmm...)**

**Anyway, My mate has challenged me to a writing competition, but he hasn't watched Naruto. In other words; I'm probably going to be writing a Harry Potter fic sometime soon. I've got a few ideas for that, and they're all very original, so hopefully I can come up with something good! Keep an eye on my author list (author alert me! :D) for when it pops up. It will probably be called "Harry Potter and the (something)." Alternatively, it may also be called something completely different. In other words I haven't thought of a name.**

**I named the village because it just felt creepy that the village be named as such when their idea of pleasure is so twisted from what would normally be considered pleasurable. Some bitter irony there.  
**

**One thing I'm unsure about is the bar above some romaji letters when I'm writing fanfiction. I use the ō in Hanzō and such, but I'm not sure how I should spell some of the other words, seeing as it varies a lot between stories. For example: should I spell 'Wind Release' as 'Futon,' 'Fuuton' or 'Fūton'? Same thing with Chuunin, Suiryuudan and a few others. If people could give me their opinions on this it would be much appreciated. I will probably go back and change it to whatever was the most popular suggestion.**

**Chapter 16 will be up tomorrow night, hopefully! If I can't get it done by then, it will probably be up the night after. Please Review and tell me what you think!  
**

**Cheers,**

**Lord Bear  
**

_Hiru Bansho no jutsu_ – Leech all Creation Technique

Kanashibari no jutsu – Temporary Paralysis Technique

_Doton: Shinjū Zanshu no Jutsu_ – Earth Release: Inner Decapitation Technique

_Doton: Iwagakure no jutsu_ – Earth Release: Hidden Amongst Rocks Technique

_Doton: Dochū Eigyo no jutsu_ – Earth Release: Underground Projection Fish Technique

_Suiton: Suiryūdan no Jutsu_ – Water Release: Water Dragon Blast

_Tanoshimigakure_ – The Village Hidden in Pleasure

_Jiongu_ – Earth Grudge Fear


	16. Kakuzu and Hidan

**A/N: Alright, I'm finally back for another update lol. This chapter took so long because I decided mid-week to scrap my Harry Potter fic and instead write a Code Geass fic after watching R2 (Which, I might add, is f...ng fantastic). I'm really excited about writing it, having come up with what I think are some great ideas (time will tell if they are or not though, I guess :P). It will be a post-R2 fic, and I'll definately be working on Chapter 1 of that next, so if you're a Code Geass fan, keep an eye out for it! **

**It will most likely be named "Code Geass: The Game of Kings"**

**This chapter I tried to write a realistic Kakuzu vs. Naruto scene. A lot of fics I've seen have Naruto vs. Kakuzu fights going something like this:**

**"Hey Kakuzu"****  
"Hey Naruto"  
"RASENSHURIKEN!"  
*Kakuzu keels over and dies*  
"Yay."**

**A lot of people have also asked me to extend my fight scenes; especially with an Akatsuki member, so thats one thing I've definately focussed on. I also tried to make sure that all of Kakuzu's abilities would be used to their full effect, so that Naruto actually has to put out in order to defeat him. Of course that basic idea works in canon because the masks are chasing team 10 around (lol at the lightning mask chasing Shikamaru), so they don't have to be dealt with like they do in fanfiction.**

**When reading this scene, try to visualise everything in your head. I'm not sure how many people just skim over fights looking for dialogue (I know I sometimes do that), but you won't get much enjoyment out of this one unless you read it carefully.**

**Hopefully I can somehow weasel my way out of DaxLP Murdering me for my 'epic' fight scene! Let me know what you think, eh?  
**

**Heres Chapter 16, please read and review!  
**

* * *

**Last Time:**

Kakuzu didn't take the bait, and continued. "So that's why you had planned on waiting for Hidan to begin his ritual before you would make your move, then" he deduced, seemingly amused. He looked up at Naruto with a maniacal gleam in his eye.

"But what you didn't realise, is that I'm _far_ more powerful than Zetsu was."

* * *

"I know" Naruto replied, letting the grin fade gradually off his face. The tension was thick for a few moments, both parties staring each other down. Naruto tried to get a grip on his opponent's mindset during a serious battle, something he was unable to do accurately while Kakuzu toyed with the comparatively weak bandits.

His original assessment seemed correct; Kakuzu would be a no-nonsense fighter who would take the first available opportunity for a killing blow. This would be his hardest fight to date, but if he couldn't win, there was no way he would be able to defeat Akatsuki; Pein would be far beyond him. Fortunately the makeshift village was completely wiped out already; if Kakuzu had a summoning contract, he'd have to bring out Gamabunta, and if that happened, the village would be dust in minutes regardless.

Kakuzu seemed to be assessing him too. Considering Naruto had already learnt everything he could about him at this point, there was no reason to give the Akatsuki shinobi any more time to develop a strategy.

Reaching down to draw two kunai from his leg holster he started to run forward, throwing one as he veered left to take cover behind the rubble of the building he had just jumped off. Kakuzu blocked with his own kunai, before returning it to his holster and starting a string of handseals. Naruto looked out from behind the small section of the wall which was still standing and grimaced.

'_He's using ninjutsu this early? I was counting on him using those metal threads to attack me. At least I think they're metal. If they aren't I can't use raiton effectively.'_

Reaching into his back right ninja pouch, he withdrew another kunai and dropped it on the ground behind the wall. He leapt out from its cover and charged Kakuzu, throwing the second of his original two kunai directly at his opponent.

Kakuzu glared at him, being forced to break off his chain of seals on the second last one in order to parry the kunai. He had expected Naruto to attack him with taijutsu, at which point he would have completed his sequence. If he had used his threads to block the knife it would have redirected his chakra away from the technique anyway.

Naruto – seeing no better option for the moment – launched a taijutsu attack, striking out with his right foot in an attempt to force Kakuzu off balance. Kakuzu parried the blow and attempted to return his own; his fist being caught by Naruto's metal arm guards. He followed it up with a knee which connected with Naruto's own – having had the same thought – and ducked, lowering his centre of gravity to sweep Naruto's legs out from under him.

Naruto had barely caught his balance when his left foot was kicked up, losing its contact with the ground. Reflexively, he jumped slightly on his right foot and barely evaded the full sweep, landing instead on Kakuzu's shin and using it to launch himself into the air.

"_**Kage Bunshin no Jutsu"**_

Three _Kage Bunshin_ formed alongside Naruto in the air as Kakuzu retracted his foot, it having embedded itself in the ground when Naruto used it as a springboard. He looked up to see the three doppelgangers converging on him and detached his right hand at the wrist, sending it speeding towards the centre clone, controlled by two threads maintaining its connection to his exposed inner wrist. It pierced directly through the clone's heart, and he flexed his arm to send it careening towards the other two. The projectile hit nothing but thin air; the other two clones having seen it coming and used the centre clone to launch off, accelerating them towards the ground even faster.

Kakuzu narrowed his eyebrows and tried to leap backwards; the two remaining clones and the real Naruto being out of his direct line of vision. His retreat was halted by the two clones, who had appeared on either side of him and were holding his arms. The right clone had a vice grip on both his arm and the threads extending from his wrist, preventing him from manipulating his detached wrist.

Just as he was about to release his masks, the clone on the left met his eyes with a feral grin plastered on its face. Its right hand gripped Kakuzu's fist, and its left held a piece of paper with a symbol on it.

'_An explosive seal? No…something else.'_

The clone channelled some of its chakra into the seal to activating it, creating a blindingly bright flash of light. Both clones held their ground as well as they could; Kakuzu's enormous strength slowly overpowering them. Kakuzu kept trying to release his masks while squinting to relieve the pain from his eyes, but the mere seconds since the clone's original creation hadn't allowed him the time to do so. He looked up as he heard footsteps approaching him at speed, but couldn't open his eyes yet with the pain still present.

"_**Rasengan!"**_

As the light cleared, Naruto looked up at Kakuzu with a grin on his face. That grin soon vanished as Kakuzu returned his own, even wider grin. Naruto looked down to see a twisted mass of coils in front of his hand where the _Rasengan_ had hit.

'_That's…is it possible that he's like Gaara? Is it an ultimate defence?'_

Kakuzu chuckled. "Foolish boy, do you really think I wasn't prepared for your _Rasengan_?" He stated its name mockingly, attempting to elicit a response from Naruto. When he never received one, he growled and backhanded the blond shinobi – his clones having been slashed to pieces in the confusion – back down the path and into a post.

Naruto bit his tongue to keep from screaming out; that hit had been much harder than he was expecting. Kakuzu sped through a set of handseals, ending on _Uma_ just as Naruto began to shakily pull himself into a standing position.

"_**Raiton: Rairyuu no Jutsu!"**_

Kakuzu watched in apathy as his enormous lightning dragon impacted the area Naruto had landed, the sheer energy it held scorching the region heavily.

'_It's over. There's no way anyone can dodge a lightning attack of that magnitude. The other four elements can be dodged easily, but lightning is an electrical current; it hits its target an instant after being formed.'_

He looked down just in time to see a kunai vanish from the ground in front of him.

**SQUELCH!**

His face contorting in fury and pain, his hands moved reflexively to his chest, applying pressure to the area surrounding the wakizashi which had been impaled through his chest. Naruto stood behind him smirking, his right hand holding the handle of the wakizashi, and his left holding a tri-pronged kunai. He looked over his shoulder and his eyebrows narrowed as he recognised the weapon.

"_Hiraishin no Jutsu._ I never thought I'd see that technique in action." He ground out, coughing up blood as he fought to remove the sword from his chest. "It doesn't matter though, not even the _Hiraishin_ can defeat me!"

Four threads broke through the cloak on Kakuzu's back and snaked towards Naruto, taking him by surprise and one piercing through his left shoulder. His grip on the kunai faltered as he let out a low hiss of pain, but he remained holding it as he pulled the wakizashi out of Kakuzu's chest and leapt backwards, trying to put some distance between him and the threads.

The threads didn't follow him, instead twisting together as Kakuzu removed his cloak, allowing hundreds more to join them. The thick mass of black metallic cords knitted together, forming three vaguely humanoid shapes. Each shape held a white mask where its head would be, contrasting vividly with the pure black of the threads.

Naruto dropped to one knee and shoved the kunai back into its pouch, before using the hand to steady himself on the ground. At the same time he re-sheathed his wakizashi, and his right hand flew to the open wound. The piercing had gone the whole way through. He gritted his teeth and screamed through them, focussing on accessing the Kyuubi's chakra.

He could feel it; the mass of red chakra hidden in his centre. Steadily he felt it out to grasp it, barely skimming its surface for enough energy to heal his wound.

"**Is that all you're taking, human? You'll never defeat him without me."**

Naruto ignored the Kyuubi's taunts, focussing on blocking out the burning pain in his shoulder and accessing its chakra stores.

'_I can beat him. I don't need much; just enough to heal myself. I can beat him without the fox!'_

The Kyuubi hissed in rage as Naruto managed to hold his focus long enough to draw out a portion of its chakra and send it towards the injury. It began to force more and more of its toxic energy towards him in its anger; the force of the surge pulsing against the barriers Naruto held up with his concentration as he drew on the Kyuubi's chakra.

Naruto grunted in determination, finally ripping control away from the demon just in time to witness Kakuzu spread his arms wide with a smirk.

"This, is my _Jiongu_."

Naruto shivered; the three monstrosities in front of him each contained a living, beating heart. He reached out with his chakra sensors to see if he could detect them.

'_This is the Jiongu? I can see why they call it forbidden. These…monsters should never exist, even if he is the one controlling them. They each have their own chakra signatures …'_

"Ne, Kakuzu" Hidan called from down the road, still lying in his symbol with the pike speared through his ribcage.

"What is it, Hidan?" Kakuzu replied scathingly, clearly aggravated by the interruption.

"Who the fuck is that?"

Kakuzu adjusted his head slightly, looking past Naruto to where Hidan lay. "This is the nine-tails Jinchuuriki. How can you have sat there the entire time and not noticed?"

"Tch. Like I give a fuck what you're doing, Kakuzu."

"This Jinchuuriki killed Zetsu." Kakuzu stated calmly, ignoring Hidan's barb. "I will bring him in to Pein-sama, we may need him for the new schedule. Go back to your religious games, Hidan."

Hidan growled and clenched his fist. "Fuck you, Kakuzu! If you're dying don't expect me to help you, asshole!"

Kakuzu ignored Hidan once again, returning his gaze to Naruto, who smirked upon hearing Hidan's last comment.

'_I was counting on Hidan being busy with his ritual, and not having to fight them both until Hidan realises Kakuzu is in trouble. Now Hidan has said he has no intention of helping Kakuzu. That's even better.'_

Naruto's face snapped back into its neutral position as Kakuzu swung his right arm forward, ordering two of his creatures towards him. He dove left immediately, narrowly avoiding a concentrated blast of wind which kicked up chunks of dirt and hurled them down the road.

'_That one's wind, then.'_

Seconds later he had to abandon his position again, this time ducking behind a tree to shield himself from a stream of fireballs one of the masks had spat at him. The tree began to crackle as he stood behind it searching the vicinity for the other two masks, and he leapt backwards into a somersault, barely clearing the blast radius as the entire tree went up in flames.

'_I guess that one's fire.'_

Catching sight of the other two moving in a wide circle around him for a pincer attack, he decided to take his chances and sunk into the ground using the _Hiru Bansho_. He seemed to lose them for a moment as he sped towards Kakuzu, before they began to give chase, rapidly gaining on him as he darted up the inside of one of the street posts.

The unidentified mask reached him the fastest, forgoing any sort of elemental attack and barrelling straight into the tall post, causing it to begin to topple towards the ground. Naruto grimaced as it fell, surfacing on the upper side of the post and running towards it end as it fell. He could see Kakuzu down below, watching the three masks returning to make a three point formation around him.

'_Perfect, he has no idea where I am'_ Naruto thought, inwardly chuckling as he leapt off the top of the pole towards Kakuzu, his right hand reaching behind him to draw his wakizashi.

**CLANG!**

Kakuzu spun around at the last moment to parry Naruto's slash, grinning maliciously before kicking him down the road towards Hidan. Naruto pulled himself to his feet and coughed up blood.

'_Of course…he could detect my chakra when I was hidden in the wall. That's how he was tracking me before.'_

The blond shinobi grinned as the three masks tore down the road towards him, waiting for them to unleash their elemental attacks. As they passed the halfway mark, his right hand snapped back to his pouch and pulled out a kunai, throwing it directly at Kakuzu, between the fire and wind elemental creatures. Kakuzu ignored the kunai, tilting his head arrogantly to avoid it as he watched the masks' attacks close in on Naruto.

**CLANG!**

Kakuzu chuckled, turning around to see Naruto attempting to once again impale him with his wakizashi.

"_Hiraishin_ again? I told you that you won't defeat me with that. All I have to do is turn my body into metal any time I see you throw one of those fancy little kunai at me. It's worthless!"

This time Naruto recovered before Kakuzu's kick could make contact with him, ducking under it and responding with his own. Kakuzu was launched across the road and landed in the debris left by the destroyed bathroom whose wall Naruto had hidden in earlier. He stood up and wiped a few drops of blood off his lip, the veil he once wore having caught on a piece of rubble and been torn to shreds as he fell.

"So you managed to make me bleed, did you? Still, it was weak. _Hiraishin_ and _Rasengan_ are useless on me; you'll need more than that to kill me."

Kakuzu was slightly taken aback by Naruto's lack of response to his taunts, averting his eyes slightly to see the three masks heading back up the road towards him, their control being somewhat unreliable when not in eyeshot. Faster than he could react to, Naruto's right hand flew to the handle of his wakizashi once again, and he disappeared.

**SQUELCH!**

Kakuzu grunted in pain as his hands once again returned to his chest, struggling to dislodge the sword which had pierced his torso for the second time. His three puppet creatures halted twenty feet away from the lack of concentration, as Naruto fought for control of the sword against Kakuzu's incredible brute strength.

"How did you –" Kakuzu began, cutting himself off to cough up blood.

"– use the _Hiraishin_ without a kunai?" Naruto replied mockingly, grinning madly in victory despite still struggling with his blade. "I didn't."

Kakuzu looked over his shoulder at Naruto with narrowed eyes, unintentionally relinquishing control of the sword slightly. "What?"

Naruto smirked, pulling the blade out slightly. "I planted a kunai here at the start of the fight. I just had to lure you towards it."

The Akatsuki ninja growled, spinning around with the wakizashi still embedded in his back to punch Naruto in the head, knocking him to the ground with a low grunt of pain. Kakuzu reached behind him and pulled the blade out of his back, snapping it in two with his hands as he recalled the unknown mask. Naruto looked up with wide eyes as he scrambled backwards.

'_He snapped a sword with his hands? How is that possible?'_

Kakuzu glared at him menacingly as the heart in the mask integrated itself into his body. The _Jiongu_ gave him the ability to survive slightly longer without a heart to allow him time to retract one of his external hearts as a replacement.

"That trick won't work on me anymore," he began as his torso began to turn black. "If I keep my skin in its metal form the entire time, you won't be able to use your _Hiraishin_ at all."

Naruto cursed under his breath, he'd been hoping that Kakuzu wouldn't be able to do that for extended periods of time. Again he began to bolt away, the two remaining masks chasing after him with a spray of generic – yet extremely powerful – elemental attacks.

Kakuzu walked casually over to Hidan as he watched his _Jiongu_ masks pursue Naruto all over the exterminated village, confident in his ability to kill him using the masks well before his own chakra stores ran out. He'd only lost two of his five hearts after all; he could always get them back later.

'_Hopefully that kid has a lightning or water affinity. He's already destroyed those hearts.'_

"Having trouble, Kakuzu?" Hidan jibed, seeing the tear in his shinobi gear over his chest.

Kakuzu scoffed. "Hardly. He got a couple of lucky shots with _Hiraishin no Jutsu_. He won't get that chance again."

Hidan's eyes widened slightly at the mention of the Yondaime's technique. "Isn't that…"

"Yes. It's not enough to kill me though." Kakuzu drawled.

"Tch. You always say that. It's always 'won't kill me' this and 'can't defeat me' that. Surely you can think of something better than that, asshole."

Kakuzu ignored him, looking back up to see Naruto slightly over thirty feet away, waiting with a kunai in each hand as the two semi-sentient masks charged him from afar. Kakuzu flicked his fingers, giving the order for one of his most powerful attacks.

The two skidded to a stop, standing side by side and rearing back to release what, to Naruto, was obviously a far more powerful elemental attack than he had seen so far.

'_A combination attack? Fire and wind…'_

Naruto began to flip through hand seals much faster than he had ever been able to before his training trip. The one he had identified as the fire mask acted first, spitting out a huge fireball which began to travel towards him.

'_A Goukakyu no Jutsu?'_

Moments after the fireball was released, the wind mask bent forward sharply and exhaled an incredible blast of wind, which looked as if it were going to be far more powerful than any Naruto had felt before.

'_So strong…this must be the Fuuton: Atsugai no Jutsu!'_

The _Atsugai_ caught up to the fire attack almost instantly and the two techniques merged instantly, creating a blisteringly hot fireball, its heat more than tripling as it was spurred on by the wind. Naruto finished his seals less than a second before it would have hit him.

**"_Fuuton: Kaze Gyakuten no Jutsu!"_**

He held the rat seal with shaking hands, sweating heavily as he forced more and more chakra into reversing the technique. It slowed down gradually until it was feet away from him, the flames licking at his hands and scorching them as he willed it to return.

With a scream of exertion he pumped close to every last bit of chakra he had into the technique, sending it careening back at the two stationary creatures of the _Jiongu_. Kakuzu shielded his eyes from the explosion, his eyes widening at the jutsu; in all his years as a shinobi he had never seen anything like it before.

'_I thought the only way to defend against a wind attack was with a stronger fire or wind attack…'_

The smoke cleared to reveal a panting Naruto walking slowly over to the site of the destruction. As he came closer he began to regain his breath, standing up straighter and breathing easier with every step. He grinned when he saw the twisted remains of the softened metal and the two cracked masks – having survived the heat but not the pressure of the blast. He looked towards Kakuzu and spoke.

"Do you like my new technique? I created it with you in mind"

"I'm honoured" Kakuzu drawled, glaring daggers at the blond shinobi.

Naruto grinned and shrugged. "Not really, I created it to deal with Pein."

Kakuzu couldn't decide whether to be insulted that Naruto had tried to make him seem insignificant, or to laugh at the idea of 'dealing with' Pein.

Nobody simply 'deals with' Pein.

The cocky expression Naruto was wearing slowly vanished; replaced by a mask of seriousness as Kakuzu clenched his fists, seething visibly. He had only one heart now. The _Jiongu_ would be all but useless to bolster his elemental attacks; no longer having any remaining masks to assign each affinity too.

Without warning he rushed at Naruto, barely missing the surprised teen and slamming his fist into the ground. Naruto had managed to recuperate just in time to avoid the strike, sidestepping the attack and countering with a roundhouse kick. Kakuzu ducked it and put all his weight on his still-immobilised right fist. His legs kicked up behind him as he flexed his arm and propelled himself towards the teen.

Naruto was caught by surprise when Kakuzu executed his taijutsu attack as he tried desperately to parry, only succeeding once five solid kicks had caught him in the chest and jaw. He spun wildly from the impact, landing on his side and barely rolling out of the way as Kakuzu lashed out with his threads. Kakuzu's detached fist flew past him and he reached out to grasp the threads. Pulling it taut, he winced from the friction burns he received when they caught one of his fingers – unprotected by the material of his fingerless gloves.

Kakuzu grinned and began to retract the chords, sending himself careening at Naruto, fist cocked back for a haymaker. Naruto cursed, he'd been planning to use his leverage on the threads to sling the Akatsuki-nin into a wall or something similar. Letting go just before Kakuzu was to make contact, he dropped to all fours, the punch whistling past his ear. He pushed himself up and barrelled into Kakuzu with a yell, slipping seamlessly into the highest offensive kata of those he knew from his style.

His _Kurohyo_ taijutsu style was broken into defence and offence components which are learnt and applied separately. The user would apply the defensive style exclusively as they looked for an opening, switching to the offensive style to counter-attack when they found one. The defensive component had no form of offence at all, while the offensive style did not have a single parry or block.

Kakuzu broke the sequence eventually, catching Naruto's shoulder and delivering a crushing haymaker to his skull. The blond ninja pulled himself to his feet groggily, creating four waves of _Kage Bunshin_ reflexively to give himself time to regain his bearings.

'_Kuso…Hiraishin won't work…Rasengan is useless with those metal things around him…I'll never beat him with taijutsu, his is far better than my own…Kuso…If only I could…Could I?'_

Naruto ground his teeth, preparing three _Kage Bunshin_ to help him recreate his technique. It had been months since he had last use it effectively; losing his ability to wield it at the worst possible time. He had developed it swiftly to become the ace up his sleeve against Kakuzu.

'_Start with a Rasengan…'_

The vivid blue ball whirred to life in the palm of his right hand, as he gripped his wrist with the other to hold it steady.

'…_Now add wind chakra…'_

One of the clones held their hands over the ball, moving them around it rapidly in an attempt to force wind chakra into it in as many different directions as possible. The _Rasenshuriken_ grew; fine blades of wind entwining as the sound changed to accommodate the foreign energy. Kakuzu glanced over the shoulder of a clone to see the attack being prepared; his eyebrows narrowed as he slit the throats of two, intent on obliterating the final two echelons before it could be finished.

'…_Keep it steady…'_

The other two clones joined in, pumping small amounts of regular chakra towards the ball, driving back any wind chakra which had attempted to break away from it.

'…_Just a little longer…'_

Kakuzu choked the first two clones in the final group with his threads, swinging them around to dispel three others. He growled as he saw Naruto stand up straight holding the technique above his head in preparation to launch it; whether the attack was ranged or not he had no way to tell.

'…_This is it!'_

Naruto charged at Kakuzu with a growl, brandishing the completed _Rasenshuriken_ above his head. Kakuzu snarled and destroyed the final two clones with a pair of shuriken as he turned to face the whirling behemoth bearing down on him. He flicked his wrist and it detached slightly, two kunai falling out of the cavity and into his waiting palm.

Naruto gained speed as he tore down the once pristine road – now shredded from battle – towards Kakuzu; his focus almost entirely on the technique held in his palm. It was by no means perfect; it was taking everything he had just to hold it together.

A brief flash of sunlight reflected into his eyes from a point closer to Kakuzu, his eyes blinking to relieve themselves of the slight stinging sensation. The flash caught his eyes once again an instant afterwards, closer this time. Naruto averted his eyes, looking down just in time to see two kunai puncture the skin of his thigh.

Stumbling slightly and not bothering to hold in a pained scream, he continued to charge at Kakuzu, intent on delivering the finishing blow. One of the kunai dislodged itself from his leg as he ran, releasing a thin spray of blood directly from a pierced vein.

Kakuzu cursed, seeing Naruto ignore his injuries, and began wildly flinging kunai and shuriken at him in the precious seconds before he reached him; those seconds feeling like hours as Naruto moved closer and closer to his target. If Naruto hit him, it would all be over and Naruto would win. If Kakuzu could get him to lose control of the technique, it would backfire at point-blank, killing Naruto instantly.

Naruto's flak jacket became riddled with shuriken, his arms and legs punctured in more than one place by one of the many projectiles. Before Kakuzu could attempt to force him to drop it once again, he was on top of him.

"_**Fuuton: Rasenshuriken!"**_

Naruto let out a chilling scream as the technique hit, the blast radius encompassing his arm instead of exclusively concentrating on the area where Kakuzu stood. He fell to the ground as he desperately tried to pull his arm away from the lethal sphere of energy, tears of pain streaming down his cheeks. When the explosion subsided only Naruto was left, writhing in agony amongst the rubble.

The _Rasenshuriken_ had torn his arm to shreds. His skin hung from it in hundreds of places, stained red from the blood which was rapidly draining from the wound. His muscles were all but obliterated; the mangled mix of skin, muscle and blood inseparable to the naked eye. Along the length of his arm his bones were more often visible than not, save for two of his fingers which had been reduced to nothing. He felt the fox's pull, dragging him involuntarily into his mindscape. Regardless, he was too weak to resist it at present.

"**Foolish human! That attack almost killed us!"** the Kyuubi screamed furiously, pumping masses of demonic chakra towards the damaged limb. Naruto barely registered the berating from his position curled up on the wet floor of his mindscape, being too weak to stop the flow of chakra even if he wanted to.

Slowly, the damage began to repair itself; the Kyuubi's chakra bubbling in the air about the wound. Naruto began to regain his awareness as the skin knitted together once more and his muscles reformed. He tried to leave the mindscape, but the pain was still too strong to risk, lest he fall into unconsciousness. He could feel the demonic chakra wrapping around his body, even in his mindscape the feeling transferred.

'_No…the Kyuubi is…I can't let it…'_

With a groan he attempted to force it back, barely slowing its progress in enveloping his entire body. Grinding his teeth together and pushing on the barrier between the physical world and that of the mindscape, his eyes snapped open, already clouded by the red veil of the demon fox cloak. His emotions spun wildly out of control as he tried to force the Kyuubi back.

"_Kawarimi no Jutsu._ The perfect counter to your technique" drawled Kakuzu mockingly, walking out from behind a nearby wall to approach Naruto. "It's a pity; you looked like you put so much work into that."

Naruto's gaze snapped up to meet his own, a feral snarl forming on his face. Kakuzu drew nearer as Naruto wrestled the Kyuubi for control. His eyes vacillated uncontrollably between red and blue as he managed to tear some influence away from the beast. He squeezed his eyelids shut, seeing Kakuzu move to stand beside him, smirking as he watched Naruto seemingly writhe around on the ground in pain.

"You know I always ask a select few of my opponents this question before I kill them…" he began with a glint in his eye, looking up to the sky as he spoke.

'_I don't need the fox's power…I can win without it…'_

"…How does it feel…"

'_Just a little more…If I can just…I can win …'_

"…Knowing you're going to be my next heart?"

'…_I don't need the fox…I don't need it!'_

Naruto's eyes snapped open, their pupils a wild red as he swung his left hand towards Kakuzu's midsection.

"DIE!"

The Akatsuki-nin's breath caught in his throat as his gaze slowly travelled down to meet Naruto's own, a thick current of red chakra puncturing his chest and extending through to the other side, culminating in the shape of a vivid chakra claw. His eyes widened in shock as he fell to his knees, coughing up blood. He tried to move his mouth, to choose his last words, but could not force enough air through his lungs to articulate them.

Kakuzu of Akatsuki crumpled to the ground face-down on his chest, dead.

Naruto dragged himself away from the corpse, forcing the remnants of the Kyuubi's chakra back into its reservoir. He drew in a series of ragged breaths before they finally levelled out and he was able to pull himself to his feet.

"So you actually managed to kill him, eh?" Hidan remarked casually, walking over to Naruto as he cleaned the blood off his pike and retracted it, placing it back inside his robes.

"You don't sound overly concerned" Naruto pointed out sarcastically, his knees still shaking slightly.

Hidan laughed. "Of course I'm not. Why would I care if that asshole dies? I've been trying to kill him myself for months! Now I can finally get a partner who won't drag me off to capture his fucking bounties between every mission!"

"You won't be getting another partner, Hidan" Naruto responded, sounding far more confident than he was. His natural 'blue' chakra stores were almost empty, and he really didn't want to have to draw on the fox's for this fight. Despite having prepared extensively for this battle, there were so many things that could go wrong. If everything went right, though, this battle would be over in seconds.

"Tch. You may have killed Kakuzu but I. Can't. Die!" the remaining Akatsuki member shouted in delirium, reaching behind his head to remove his scythe and sending it swinging towards Naruto.

Naruto was barely able to avoid the projectile; his legs still stiff from use of the Kyuubi's chakra. He pushed himself up and out of his dive, sprinting in a circle around Hidan. As he ran he created a group of _Kage Bunshin_ with his remaining chakra, hoping he had made enough. Everything hinged on them now.

Thirty clones appeared surrounding him, falling in behind and to either side of him as he ran. Hidan swung his scythe in a circle, following their path and steadily gaining on them. Two clones stumbled slightly, falling behind and being torn to pieces by the scythe. Naruto panicked slightly, ordering his clones to focus on evading the weapon.

As he ran he began to shuck his cloak, throwing it behind himself to a clone, who again threw it off to the side so it wouldn't be destroyed. His Left arm guard followed – his right one having been obliterated by the _Rasenshuriken's_ blast. He was silently thankful that he hadn't stored anything in the tattoos on his right arm, which had been incinerated in the recoil of the same technique. He then peeled off his Takigakure-issue flak jacket, passing it to the clone and tearing the black t-shirt off completely – he could always get another later.

He was shirtless now, his chest revealing an intricate pattern of seals covering it in its entirety. A similar set of seals adorned his back. The symbols had survived the battle and the Kyuubi's chakra comfortably, being written in single-use sealer's ink; making them permanent and, for all intents and purposes, tattoos until they are activated.

A whistling sound distracted him, turning to see three kunai flying through the air towards him. He reached into his kunai pouch to find it empty, instead drawing one of his black tanto from his belt and deflecting the blade. He followed the parry up by launching the blade at Hidan. Hidan ducked the knife as Naruto shouted to his clones.

"Now!"

The remaining twenty clones charged at Hidan from all directions, forcing him to let go of the rope attached to his scythe and fend them off with taijutsu. Two grabbed him by the arms as the real Naruto pushed his way through the pack and slammed the palm of his hand into Hidan's forehead.

"_**Hyūga Sōke no Juinjutsu!"**_

Hidan let out a scream as he struggled to break free from the clones' hold; the rest having joined the original two in impeding his movements. Naruto grunted in determination as the seals flowed down his arm and through the palm of his hand, arranging themselves in a spiral pattern reaching down to Hidan's neck. He released his forehead and clapped his hands together.

"_**Fūin!"**_

Naruto stumbled backwards, panting from exertion as he watched the seals pulse softly with a green glow and fade into Hidan's skin. His screams became even louder as he found the energy to pull away from the clones and gripped his forehead in agony. Naruto waited calmly for Hidan to regain his senses. Finally, the Akatsuki-nin removed his hands with a snarl, exposing a vivid green swastika adorning his forehead; a thin band of the same sickly green marking extending from either side and around the back of his skull.

"You!" he screamed in fury, baring a fist at Naruto who made no move to reply. "What the fuck did you do to me?!"

"I gave you the Hyuuga 'Caged Bird' Seal" Naruto replied simply.

Hidan wore a look which was a mix between vehemence and obvious confusion as he replied. "What the fuck? Why the fuck did you do _that_?!"

"What use is an immortal body if you don't have an immortal mind to go with it?"

"What the hell is that supposed to mean, asshole" Hidan spat back, frustrated with the roundabout response.

"This seal is applied to the members of the Hyuuga Branch House by the Main House. Whenever a Main House member forms a certain hand seal, the 'Caged Bird' Seal attacks the brain, torturing the victim." Naruto replied, before grinning sadistically at the furious Jashinist and placing his hands together. "_This_ certain hand seal."

Hidan, to his credit, bore the pain without making a sound. Still, Naruto had only barely touched the two halves of the hand seal together; nowhere near the pain of applying the seal or activating it fully.

"Your body will live forever, but your mind will die today. You have Orochimaru to thank for that."

"Orochimaru?!" Hidan screamed, panicking. "What the fuck does he have to do with this?!"

Naruto slowly brought his hands together, stopping right before contact and looking over them at the sweating Hidan. "I found the scroll containing this seal in his office. I never would have thought to seal you off, otherwise."

"In his office? Wait…that was _you_?! _You're_ the fucker who managed to break into Otogakure?!"

"That's right, Hidan. And you'll never tell anyone either" Naruto replied coldly, trying not to think of all the people Hidan had to have sacrificed to his 'religion' over the years. There was no doubt in his mind this would be the right choice, no matter how hard it was to stomach. "Goodbye."

Hidan scrambled forwards in panic, trying futilely to reach Naruto as he brought his hands back together. "Wait…Wait…No!"

Naruto's hands touched.

The next twenty minutes passed by in a blur to Naruto, his eyes unfocussed as he gazes towards the sky, trying to block out Hidan's anguished screams. He wondered at what point he had become desensitised to the brutal torture, now feeling completely apathetic about it. He hadn't had the urge to throw up for ten minutes at least, although realising this made that urge resurface slightly.

At long last the screams subsided, and the silver-haired man's eyes rolled loosely in their sockets. Naruto sighed and shook his head; what was done was done, nobody would cry for Hidan tonight. Wearily, he made his way over to check for vital signs; drained of energy from the two fights he'd managed to win against all odds.

Hidan's body was alive, although his mind was gone. Naruto reached over to the underside of his left arm and unsealed a backpack from one of the storage tattoos, rummaging around until he found two large scrolls. He unrolled one of them and lifted Hidan's hand up, sliding the ring off and placing it in his pocket before moving him on top of the scroll. He made a hand seal and placed a hand on Hidan's chest, forcing chakra out of his palm. With a pop, Hidan vanished, as a symbol appeared on the scroll indicating a successful sealing.

He did the same to Kakuzu; pocketing his ring and sealing his corpse into the same scroll; the symbol left by Hidan's sealing joined by an identical one. Silently, he dragged himself to his feet, making his way over to retrieve Hidan's scythe, his own tanto and any kunai or shuriken he could find littered around the area. All of his _Hiraishin _kunai were accounted for, so he didn't focus too hard on collecting every projectile.

He sealed the scythe inside the second scroll and returned both to their backpack, re-sealing it in his arm. After one last look at the tomb that was Tanoshimigakure, he began to make his way towards the gate. As tired as he was, if he stayed then someone would surely see the devastation. Being caught in the middle of that wasn't an option.

He would find a tree to sleep in a few miles from the village, before he made his way to Takigakure – the last leg of his journey.

* * *

**A/N: This is my longest chapter to date by a LONG way. 6,800 words without the author notes! Luckily I split this and Chapter 15 up lol.**

_**EDIT (18/01/09): Sorry, but I've decided to discontinue 'The Greatest Shinobi War.' To put it bluntly, my writing (and plot) for this story so far isn't at the level I feel I am capable of now, so I've decided to put all my focus into 'Code Geass: The Game of Kings.' I'll put this note at the start of Chapter 1 as well; sorry to all my readers!**_

_**I *may* continue it one day, but at the moment it isn't likely.  
**_

**Cheers,**

**Lord Bear  
**

_Raiton: Rairyuu no Jutsu _– Lightning Release: Lightning Dragon Technique

_Jiongu_ – Earth Grudge Fear

_Goukakyu no Jutsu _– Great Fireball Technique

_Fuuton: Atsugai no Jutsu_ – Wind Release: Pressure Damage Technique

_Fuuton: Kaze Gyakuten no Jutsu_ – Wind Release: Wind Reversal Technique

_Kurohyo _– Black Panther

_Kawarimi no Jutsu_ – Replacement Technique

_Hyūga Sōke no Juinjutsu_ – Hyuuga Main Family's Cursed Seal Technique

_Fūin_ – Seal


End file.
